News

DFAB HOUSE receives special mention at BetonSuisse 21

The DFAB HOUSE demonstrator is the recipient of a external pageBetonSuisse21 Awardcall_made. The awards recognise projects that demonstrate efficient and expressive use of concrete to achieve sensible and innovative design. The jury statement highlighted their appreciation for the innovative use of concrete and new types of concrete techniques and technologies, demonstrated in a real project at the 1: 1 scale. The jury additionally considers it exemplary that the three sub-projects dealing with concrete were developed collaboratively by architects, civil engineers and industry.

The Chair of Concrete Structures and Bridge Design is proud of having contributed to the success of this project.

We are proud to share our latest project: Mesh Mould Prefabrication is an innovative patented technology that combines formwork and structural reinforcement into one robotically fabricated construction system.

Thanks to the collaboration between Gramazio Kohler Research and the Chair of Concrete Structures and Bridge Design at ETH Zurich and the industrial partners external pagePERI GmbHcall_made and external pageSIKA AGcall_made, this novel method allows for the industrial and full-scale realization of complex curved, steel-reinforced concrete structures without the need for conventional formwork.

It is based on previous extensive research conducted at ETH Zurich and with the support of the external pageNCCR Digital Fabricationcall_made.

Visit our website for more insights: Mesh Mould Prefabrication

Congratulations to Nathalie Reckinger for winning the award external pagePrix d’excellence de la Fondation Enovoscall_made for her Master’s Thesis Effect of transverse bending on the shear capacity of concrete bridges accounting for the load-distribution between web and deck/bottom flange.

Conference awards:

Congratulations to Minu Lee and Lukas Gebhard for each receiving an award for their work published at the online conference of the 13th fib International PhD Symposium in Civil Engineering.

Minu Lee won the award for best paper in Innovative Technology granted by École française du Béton for his paper titled Load-deformation behaviour of concrete tension ties with weft-knitted textile reinforcement co-authored by Dr. Jaime Mata-Falcón and Prof. Dr. Walter Kaufmann (external pageResearchGatecall_made / DOI).

Lukas Gebhard was awarded the Best Paper Award in the category Innovation in Materials and Structures for his study on the Experimental Investigation of reinforcement strategies for concrete extrusion 3D printed beams co-authored by Dr. Jaime Mata-Falcón, Ana Anton, Prof. Dr. Benjamin Dillenburger and Prof. Dr. Walter Kaufmann (external pageResearchGatecall_made / DOI).

We have published the book "Compatible Stress Field Design of Structural Concrete: Principles and Validation", which is the result of the DR-Design project in collaboration with our industry partner external pageIDEA StatiCacall_made. The Compatible Stress Field Model (CSFM) is a new method that can be used for the design and assessment of any concrete structure subjected to in-plane loading and is particularly suited for the dimensioning of “discontinuity regions” such as corbels, deep beams, walls with openings, dapped beam-ends, and frame corners. The CSFM represents a significant step forward for structural engineering practice, as it allows the efficient checking of all design code provisions, including serviceability, load-deformation and deformation capacity aspects even for concrete members with complex geometry. The method is based on Finite Element Analysis and uses only basic material parameters employed in standard structural concrete design.

The ebook can be bought external pageonlinecall_made and the hardcopy will be available soon at the ETH Store.

The Chair of Concrete Structures and Bridge Design has released the open source software ACDM (Automated Crack Detection and Measurement). ACDM allows the user to automatically detect cracks and obtain the crack kinematics based on the quasi-continuous strain- and displacement field data obtained from digital image correlation (DIC) measurements.

Switzerland is a country of bridges - many of them were built decades ago. Are they still strong enough or do they have to be strengthened? To answer this question, Walter Kaufmann "tortures" bridge elements in the laboratory until they break - with a unique testing facility for shell elements at ETH Zurich. This might help to avoid unnecessary retrofits of bridges, which are time-consuming and expsenive.

Professor Walter Kaufmann, Chair of Concrete Structures and Bridge Design, talks about that in the workshop discussion (video in German only).

The Chair of Concrete Structures and Bridge Design has won the first IBK Science Slam.

IDEA-RS, our industry partner in the project DR-Design, has been awarded the "Czech Head 2018" prize - the most prestigious external pageCzech award for science and researchcall_made.

Walter Kaufmann received the "Golden Owl" at the ETH Day 2018. This award honours lecturers who have provided exceptional teaching and motivates them to continue with their excellent teaching.

NZZ featured Downloadan article (PDF, 213 KB)vertical_align_bottom on the Polcevera viaduct in Genoa based on an interview with Walter Kaufmann and Martin Bimschas.

Walter Kaufmann moderated the external pageHolcim Betontagung 2018call_made at ETH Zürich.

At the Concrete Infoday in Dordrecht, NL - an event held by IDEA StatiCa's partners in Benelux - Walter Kaufmann gave a lecture on IDEA Statica Detail.

In the programme external page"Echo der Zeit"call_made, Radio SRF featured an interview with Walter Kaufmann on LUSET.  

The Large Universal Shell Element Tester (LUSET) is featured in the latest edition of DownloadGlobevertical_align_bottom, the magazine of ETH Zurich and ETH Zurich Alumni (pp. 10-11).

Martin Bimschas and Walter Kaufmann were awarded the DownloadMirko Roš Silver Medal (JPEG, 1.2 MB)vertical_align_bottom for their contribution “An Innovative Deformation-Based System for Monitoring the Structural Safety of Stay-Cables” at the SMAR 2017 Conference.

We congratulate Juan José Arenas, founder and owner of the engineering firm Arenas&Asociados (where Walter Kaufmann was working from 1999-2002) on receiving the IABSE International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering, one of the highest international distinctions in structural engineering. For details see the external pagefull articlecall_made and the external pagelist of award recipientscall_made.

At the Empa and Eawag NEST building in Dübendorf, eight ETH Zurich professors - one of which is the professor of Concrete Structures and Bridge Design - are collaborating with business partners to build the three-storey DFAB HOUSE. It is the first house in the world to be designed, planned and built using predominantly digital processes. For details see press release.

The first pilot test in the Large Universal Shell Element Tester (LUSET) was successfully carried out on 08 June 2017. The official inauguration of the testing facility is planned for August.

Mesh Mould Project Team Receives Concrete Innovation Award at CIC 2017

After the Swiss Technology Award 2016, the Mesh Mould project team  was also awarded the Concrete Innovation Award at the Second Concrete Innovation Conference (CIC) in Tromsø, Norway. The jury particularly valued the interdisciplinarity of the project. More information on the CIC and the project «Mesh Mould» can be found on the external pageproject websitecall_made.

Dr. Jaime Mata Falcón has contributed to this research project as one of the main collaborators. The chair for concrete structures and bridge design is once again highly pleased with this award.

Mesh Mould receives Swiss Technology Award 2016

Yesterday, the project team behind the novel building technology «Mesh Mould» received the Swiss Technology Award in the category «Inventors» at the 11th Swiss Innovation Forum in Basel. The award ceremony was attended by around 1000 opinion leaders from Swiss economy, politics and society. «Mesh Mould», which was developed by researchers of ETH Zurich, allows to build load-bearing concrete elements of any shape without formwork. More information on the award ceremony and the project «Mesh Mould» can be found on the external pageproject websitecall_made.

Dr. Jaime Mata Falcón has contributed to this research project as one of the main collaborators. The chair for concrete structures and bridge design is highly pleased with this award.

The installation of the Large Universal Shell Element Tester (LUSET) is proceeding fast. The assembly of the reaction frame which consists of an in-plane frame with external dimensions of 9.6 x 9.6 m and an out-of-plane frame that extends ca. 2.8 m in the out of plane direction was completed in August. The 100 hydraulic actuators have also been installed and currently the control hardware is being set up. In the coming weeks, the control system will be implemented and tested.

Mesh Mould is a Swiss Technology Award 2016 Finalist

The external pageresearch project Mesh Mouldcall_made successfully qualified for the final of this year’s Swiss Technology Award. The innovative building technology, which has been developed by an interdisciplinary research team of ETH Zurich within the framework of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication, promises to revolutionise the construction of steel-reinforced concrete structures through the combination of the two commonly separated functions of formwork and reinforcement. The pdf of the press release can be downloaded Downloadherevertical_align_bottom.

Dr. Jaime Mata Falcón has contributed to this research project as one of the main collaborators. The chair for concrete structures and bridge design is highly pleased with this nomination.

On September 5/6, our group organised a Workshop of fib Working Party 2.2.1, chaired by Prof. Kaufmann and Prof. Bayrak (University of Austin, Texas). The workshop was attended by 30 participants from 4 continents.

On Tuesday, 13. September 2016 the symposium on current topics and developments concerning bridge design (Aktuelle Fragen und Entwicklungen im Brückenbau) takes place at ETH Hönggerberg. The meeting is co-organised by our group. Please find further information for registration, costs, and schedule under external pageBau & Wissencall_made.