TU Delft Library is cool!

According to CNN International website, TU Delft has one of the 7 coolest libraries in the world! For more information regarding the remaining six libraries, please visit:

http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/escape/7-coolest-libraries-world-934450

Other concrete blogs

There seems to be an increasing number of blogs dealing with concrete research on the internet. We don't know if we (Microlab) started it, but we like the trend!

For more info, check out the following:

1. www.cementscience.com  - This is a website on research of cement science, a world of cementitious materials by Tan Zhijun.
2. http://www.csla-project.blogspot.com - Concrete Service Life Assessment (The VTT/Tekes Research Project CSL)  will study the characteristics of chloride ion transport in concrete subject to frost attack (surface scaling and internal cracking), and develop models for more reliable service life design approach taking into account the interacted effect of degradation mechanisms. This blog was started by Dr. Miguel Ferreira of VTT, Finland.

Cheers!

Back to work!

The 3rd International Conference on Concrete Repair, Rehabilitation and Retrofitting was held in Cape Town, South Africa last week. The M3C4 team had the opportunity to visit the University of Cape Town and had interesting and successful meeting with colleagues all over the world. Until next ICCRRR,

In the course of our research, a lot of work is done in the lab. It is important to manage the time in relation with other people in the lab, to find space for all those specimens, and, finally, to keep the lab clean! How we do it - a picture is worth a thousand words!

M3C4 in ICCRRR

The M3C4 team is glad to participate in the coming 3rd International Conference on Concrete Repair, Rehabilitation and Retrofitting to be held on September 2-5 in Cape Town, South Africa. Some of the activities include:

• A Committee Meeting of RILEM TC-235-CTC

• A presentation of Modified Wedge Splitting Test, Digital Image Correlation and electrical resistance

• A presentation on using EDS to quantify chlorides in concrete

• Attending the post-conference NDT-Workshop

ICCRRR 2012 is one of the biggest conferences regarding concrete in the world, giving researchers in this field plenty of opportunities to meet colleagues from other countries for interesting discussions and networking. If you are attending ICCRRR 2012 and are interested in the work done by M3C4 don't hesitate to contact us!

Until then..

The Journey

Doing a PhD is no small deal and there are several theories about how to survive while doing it. Here is one. As always, there is still hope!
Have a nice day
:)

J

A day in the life...

The Delft part of the M3C4 team performed some interesting experiments today... The picture says it all, but more details will follow!

Corrosion rates of steel in cracked concrete

Cracks in concrete cover allow fast penetration of aggressive substances such as chlorides, leading to reinforcement corrosion. In the Figure 1, corrosion rates of embedded reinforcing bars in concrete with transverse cracks with widths ranging from 135 to 375 microns are shown. It seems that crack width has an effect on the  evolution of corrosion rate in laboratory conditions.

Figure 1. 

In Figure 2 corrosion potentials are shown, providing indication of the thermodynamical condition of the steel reinforcement. One interesting effect is found on crack width of 217 microns. Although potentials are significantly less noble than the rest, corrosion rates were found to be the lowest of all specimens. It is clear that the experimentation must go on, but so far interesting results have been obtained!

Figure 2. 

More results to be posted soon!

SSCS 2012

On behalf of the M3C4 team, Branko took part in the first international conference "Sustainable Strategies for Concrete Structures", held in Aix-en-Provence, France. Dedicated mainly to numerical modelling and its impact on sustainable concrete structures and materials, the conference was a big success. Many significant researchers were there, and presented their work. As our team also presented a paper, usefull feedback from colleagues was obtained. On the other hand, this city has proven to be a very nice and pleasant place for such an event. Following the success of the conference, it is rumoured that the following one is going to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The M3C4 team is looking forward to that!

Microdurability Conference, Amsterdam 2012

Results obtained on the course of tM3C4's research were presented and published in the latest Microstructural-related Durability of Cementitious Composites in Amsterdam. Interesting discussion with colleagues and friends ended up in fruitful feedback for the project. More about M3C4's research is going to be published in SSCS 2012 in Aix-en-Provence, France and ICCRRR 2012 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Until soon!