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Doctoral School Announcement

The Interact project team will host a doctoral school in May 2022 at Université Libre de Brussel, Belgium. PhD Students and PostDoc researchers interested in modern alkali-activated  concretes learn and discuss in lectures, get hands-on experience with advanced experimental techniques in laboratory exercises and are introduced to micromechanics-based multiscale modeling.

See https://interact.ulb.be/events/ for more details.

Registration is already open: https://bit.ly/3klrUX5

Interact Project launched

We are pleased to announce that the INTERACT project has officially launched. Thanks to the participants and their contributions to the kickoff meeting held at ULB in Brussels at January 22nd, 2019.

This was the schedule of the full-day meeting:

Welcome of the participants R42.5.110
Stéphanie Staquet (ULB): Introduction and status of the project
Session 1
Shiju Joseph (KUL): Initial results on the reaction kinetics of alkali activated slag/fly ash blends
Ruben Snellings (VITO): Measurement of degree of hydration of amorphous materials using XRD-PONKCS analysis
Karel Lesage (UGent): Rheological interests and possible interactions
Coffee break
Session 2
Siva Uppalapati (KUL): Early-age behaviour of alkali-activated slag/fly-ash blends
Brice Delsaute (ULB): Recent development in monitoring and modeling of early age properties of concrete
Jérôme Carette (ULB): Early-age COncrete Behaviour with INorganic polymer binDer, the ECOBIND project: review and prospects
Open discussion
Lunch break
Session 3
Bernhard Pichler (TUWien): From Microstructure to Macroproperties: Prediction of Elasticity, Creep, and strength of Cement Paste, Mortars, and Concretes
Arnaud Deraemaeker (ULB): Monitoring early age and long term mechanical properties of concrete using ultrasonic testing with embedded piezoelectric transducers
Open discussion on future actions and closing of the kick-off

Call for PhD applications – CLOSED

Two PhD positions are open as part of an interdisciplinary research project  “INTERdisciplinary multiscale Assessment of a new generation of Concrete with alkali activated maTerials (INTERACT)” that aims at bridging knowledge gaps for alkali-activated material (AAMs), by providing in-depth understanding on the fundamental mechanism of the solidification processes, on rheological properties, on volume stability, and on mechanical properties, which will be coupled with predictive multiscale modelling.

One PhD student will perform the task on the volume stability (autogenous behavior, restrained deformations) of AAMs with the aim of characterizing this behavior by means of various experimental tools in order to understand the underlying mechanisms and to develop modelling strategies for the autogenous deformation. The other PhD student will tackle the challenging task to characterize the mechanical behavior (the setting process, the elastic properties, the creep behavior and the failure properties including tensile and compressive strengths as well as fracture energy) of AAMs by means of various existing experimental tools available in the BATir-LGC laboratory that will have to be adapted in order to enable measuring, analyze and interpret and compare these new materials.

CALL IS CLOSED