Bridge Structures
Bridge structures focus on road bridges, railway bridges and footbridges of different construction and materials, i.e., steel, concrete (reinforced and prestressed), composite. We perform theoretical and numerical analysis, field tests of the entire structure, and laboratory test of individual structural components. The primary research in this field deal with several topics, such as carrying capacity, durability and reliability of structure; development of bridge construction technologies; structure diagnostics; development of static and dynamic measurement techniques; modal analysis and parametric identification of structure; analysis and laboratory tests of concrete structures reinforced with composite materials; analysis and laboratory tests of steel and concrete-filled fibre reinforced polymer tubes; analysis of “concrete slab – steel web” connection in beam structures; detailed analysis and laboratory tests of steel structures, contact problem, third-order analysis with plastic materials, global and local buckling; identification and modelling of live loads; vehicle-track-bridge dynamic interaction analysis; prediction of the dynamic action of the footbridge; dynamic tuning of the bridge structure; the influence of road surface irregularities on the dynamic impact of heavy vehicles on bridges.
Concrete Structures
The research scope in concrete structures covers several issues related to laboratory studies of concrete structures and a whole range of issues related to design, strength analysis, technical parameters of concrete, or the application of the latest information technologies, including artificial intelligence in concrete engineering. The main research topics include: load-bearing capacity and crack morphology of short reinforced concrete cantilevers; concrete filled steel tubular columns with non-metallic reinforcement and ultra-high performance concrete; the ultimate load-bearing capacity of reinforced concrete beams weakened by openings; minimum and maximum degree of transverse beams reinforcement; prestressed concrete structures; load-bearing capacity of concrete deep-beams; steel and aluminium anchors in concrete, thermal load in reinforced concrete tanks, hybrid concrete beams, strengthening of reinforced concrete and masonry structures, load-bearing capacity of masonry structures, diagnostics of structural elements by non-destructive methods (along with deformation studies with laser scanning), legal aspects of renovation and modernization of buildings, continuous and discreet description of cracks in concrete, scale effect in concrete and reinforced concrete structures, crack propagation analysis including concrete mesostructured, numerical modelling of materials with weakening, description of the mechanical properties of surgical fabrics and meshes, computer vision diagnostics of concrete airfield slabs, machine learning in prediction of concrete strength, machine learning-based approach for investigation on catenary action in axially-restrained reinforced concrete elements, AI-based evaluation of flexural behaviour of ultra-high performance concrete flexural members.
Road Structures
Research in road construction includes a wide range of pavement structures analysis in roads, highways, airports and container terminals. Research conducted concerns laboratory tests, computational analysis and field tests. The main research projects carried out in this field of science include design and mechanics of road pavement structures, field tests of flexible, semi-rigid and rigid pavement structures, recycling of road pavements and cold recycling, fatigue properties of deep cold in-place recycled, low-temperature properties of asphalt pavement structures, thermal stress analysis, visco-elastic analysis, rutting of asphalt mixtures, warm mix asphalt additives, interlayer bonding of pavement structures, low noise poroelastic pavements made with crumb rubber and perpetual pavement structures analysis. The bridge road pavement structures engineering research concerns theoretical and experimental studies in structural design, construction and diagnostics.
Metal Structures
Research in metal structures are related to several topics, such as experimental tests of structures fatigue capacity, thin-walled structures, static and strength analyses of metal structures, among the others steel halls, roofs, towers, wind farms, pipelines, tanks, silos, thin-walled structures; analytical and research work in the field of new technical solutions; numerical analyses by the finite element method (static and stability analysis in the linear and nonlinear range, load capacity analysis, the influence of imperfections on the load-bearing capacity of metal structures, vibrations, response of structures under dynamic loads); optimization and sensitivity analysis of structures; issues of cooperation between the structure and the ground; strength analyzes of welded joints or bolted connections, analysis of the fatigue strength of the structure; investigation of residual stresses and structures exposed to fire; non-destructive testing of metal structures; testing of anti-corrosion coatings; creation and development of the custom software for strength calculations compliant with structural design standards.
Key-words: Bridge structures, concrete structures, road structures, metal structures
