Aesthetic beauty and durability, sound and thermal properties, associated with low cost and resource availability make masonry among the most widely used construction materials across the globe. This material is highly versatile as it can take on an array of forms, sizes, patterns and functions. However, its low tensile strength is a limiting factor in situations such as settlements, earthquakes, impacts and explosions, where considerable lateral forces need to be resisted. Accordingly, strengthening, restoration and repair techniques need to be tailored to support this material without modifying its architecture. 

Our offer 

We offer standardized testing of both virgin and recycled masonry materials, as well as guidance on issues related to test selection, CE-marking and other types of certification. Detailed experiments to assess the effect of a specific loading - deadloads, earthquakes, impacts and explosions - can also be conducted on the material, component and structural levels upon request.  

We model masonry structures to verify if they meet specified code provisions - e.g. Eurocode 6, Eurocode 8 - or in combination with experiments to research their capacity to withstand the given design loads. 

We focus on the development and use of advanced experimental and computational tools: very-small to very-large-scale testing facilities, optical measurements and non-destructive testing techniques, advanced finite element and discrete element simulations.

Our mission is to contribute to the development of the next generation of sustainable, innovative, high-performance buildings and infrastructures, by increasing the knowledge and safety level related to their use. We study solutions for existing ageing structures, by investigating their properties and reuse.

Contact us

We are open to collaborative projects with the industry, universities and other research-active organisations and individuals willing to explore with us new areas of research and development on topics related to buildings and infrastructures.

Open research data

We follow the principles for Findable Accessible Interoperable Reusable data - FAIR. We value the open sharing of the research data as an important contribution to the impact, transparency and reproducibility of the scientific results achieved during our projects.

New functionalities
The materials used for the test cases will also be given new functionalities like self-sensing and easy-to-clean, with nano-particles addition. The multi-walled carbon nanotubes will be used to reduce the concretes electrical resistance and therefore enable damage and stress detection by monitoring the resistivity changes. The self-sensing might be used in the future as a sensorless structure health monitoring tool, lowering maintenance costs. The titanium dioxide (TiO₂) will be used in the project to create photocatalytic and easy-to-clean surfaces remaining snow-white over the years and cleaning the air from pollutions exhausted from car traffic.

Open call for companies to develop new lightweight materials and components
In the last stage of the project (autumn 2021), the concrete and ceramic pilot lines will announce an open call for market actors in the area of the lightweight materials to develop, functionalize or upscale their products and grant fast access to the market. If your company has an idea concerning the development of lightweight materials, feel free to contact us. LightCoce can make your ideas become reality.

UHPC is a special construction material that is used for many applications, such as façade elements, lightweight roof constructions, pedestrian and motorway bridges, protection panels, structural members in buildings, and for repair and strengthening of damaged concrete structures.

UHPC in comparison to traditional concrete is characterized by a very low water/cement ratio, perfect particles packing, high cement replacement with supplementary cementitious materials (fly ash, silica fume) and application of highly efficient superplasticisers and other additives. Due to the precise material design, the UHPC may obtain the following properties:

• Extremely high strength (5-6 times the normal concrete strength) due to high-density,
• Self-levelling/compacting, able to fill formworks of any shape without flaws,
• Low permeability resulting in superior durability and resistance to severe environmental conditions,
• Possibility of casting very slender and lightweight structures (3-4 cm thick) if non-ferrous reinforcement is used,
• Pumpability and sprayability for repairment and tunnelling works,
• High surface quality meeting the highest requirements related to architectural concrete.

Even though the today’s concrete technology facilitates ready-mix UHPC manufacturing, transport and in-situ cast, UHPC elements are mostly being produced in precast factories where thin and lightweight UHPC elements benefit economic transport and installation. The environmental footprint of UHPC can be further reduced by replacing Portland cement to a high extent with supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) and using recycled crushed aggregates without affecting the performance.

We at RISE have expertise in all areas of UHPC and related concrete technology. It is based on long term experience in research and development:

• Mix design of UHPC for specific applications,
• Experimental characterization, testing and certification,
• UHPC thin-walled structures design and manufacturing,
• Numerical simulations of UHPC material and elements,
• Consulting in production and application,
• Environmental and cost assessment through LCA/LCC.

2D measurements enable a quick overview of the contents of concrete structures and 3D measurements are beneficial locally where more detailed information is required. RISE can evaluate the scanning results directly on the GPR’s screen or analyse the results afterwards with computer programs. GPR can be used for several different applications, for example:

• Positioning of reinforcement etcetera in pillars or beams to avoid cutting reinforcement etcetera during drilling.
• Determination of the reinforcement content of concrete structures, for example in system of joists.
• Non-destructive testing for positioning of any damages, cavities, cracks, pipes, etcetera.
• Investigation of reinforcement damages, for example due to black rust. The GPR method is beneficial here since it is otherwise difficult to judge the extent of black rust from visual assessment of the concrete´s exterior.