The team of BUT employees and students has developed a protective half mask that can also be printed on a standard 3D printer without the use of special materials. The original half mask is intended for the general public and can be easily printed on standard 3D printers with FDM (thermoplastic modeling) technology.

Problematic possibilities of sealing the entire surface of the print due to its porosity were solved in an original way. Commonly available equipment is enough to produce this half mask. More information at: https://www.vutbr.cz/…/polomaska-but-h1-proti-covid-19-d197…

Student of Brazil’s Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, César Viapana, who has been in internship at the AdMaS Center for the 3rd month under the UNIGOU 2020 program organized by INCBAC, has prepared an information poster on laboratory work examining asphalt layers at a pumped storage power plant Long Hills (see below).

 

UNIGOU – Presentation Poster 2020 Mar – César Viapiana.Final

 

On 28 and 29 January 2020, the TDS – Concrete Seminar was held in the AdMaS Center.

It was attended by 38 employees of the Railway Infrastructure Administration.

The subject of the seminar was lectures and practical demonstrations on Fundamentals of concrete technology, required properties, requirements for raw materials and special concretes, transport and concrete treatment. The lecturer was prof. Ing. Rudolf Hela, PhD.

Ing. Adam Hubacek, Ph.D. acquainted the railway workers with the basic concrete regulations and tested properties, TKP SŽDC and site inspections were the topic of the lecture by doc. Ing. Jiří Brožovský, CSc.

Ing. Martin Ťažký showed guests a practical demonstration of testing fresh and hardened concrete in laboratories.

 

 

 

In early January, the Department of Roads welcomed a new trainee – a Brazilian student, César Viapian, who is studying Civil Engineering at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

César’s training in Brno is organized by INCBAC  within the UNIGOU 2020 program. Within the two-month internship, he will also be involved in research projects in the AdMaS road laboratory. It can be said that César quickly adapted in the laboratory of the center and participated in a number of practical tasks during the first days.

In one of the photographs he is captured with his supervisor, Ing. Pavel Šperka, and with prof. Kudrnou during the production of two-layer test samples simulating asphalt layers at the pumped storage power plant Dlouhé Stráně.

 

Scientists from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic together with experts from the Brno University of Technology have developed a new way to repair potholes and holes in roads. The new road technology introduced by FUTTEC company is similar to a microwave oven – the device heats the mixture to heal the road and the pothole itself. It enables ideal interconnection of materials. The technology can be used in any weather.

The disadvantage of the standard repair of potholes in the roads is that they are usually repaired with the mix that is currently available to road builders. “It is mostly a cold mix, which is an aggregate mixed with an asphalt emulsion that is not well adhered to the road. Such a repair usually does not have long durability. The patch sometimes doesn’t last until spring. However, when using equipment with microwave technology, the base and the supplementary material are permanently joined together, ”explained asphalt surface expert Jan Kudrna from FAST VUT, who cooperated with scientists from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic on the new equipment.

The development of FT3 equipment, which is used to repair roads faster and more efficiently, took several years. It is suitable for all types of asphalt pavements, including highways, airport runways and cycle paths. “The three-piece system includes a microwave that heats the asphalt material of the road to 120 ° C. The surface of the road softens and connects beautifully with the refilled mixture, which is heated to a higher temperature in another microwave oven. As a result, there are no cracks or dangerous inequalities on the road, ”added Kudrna. In addition to very good repair quality, time savings are a great advantage – cracks, potholes and potholes can be repaired within one hour. Once the road has been repaired, it is possible to drive immediately after cooling down.

Unlike standard procedures, the device can also be used in winter when the temperature is below freezing. “For example, at the Dlouhé Stráně Dam, which is 1,350 meters above sea level, there are up to two hundred frost cycles in the winter season. Due to the filling and discharging of water for the hydroelectric power plant, there will be approximately five thousand holes, which we could effectively and mainly durably repair, ”Kudrna explained. In addition, the device is less demanding to operate, only two people can operate it.

FT3 facilities have already been tested in Kopřivnice and the Road and Motorway Directorate of the Czech Republic would like to use the technology for motorway repairs. Now FUTTEC experts are working on a new prototype device that will be smaller and easier to handle. It should also be able to more easily direct the microwaves to the pothole to be repaired, allowing more targeted repair of the damaged roadway.

 

 

 

 

AdMaS is starting to participate in the international project H2020 Oscar – Opera Sceneries Circularity and Resource Efficiency. AdMaS Center representative, doc. Jiří Zach, took part in the first meeting of the project consortium, which took place on December 10, 2019 at the Opera in Lyon, France.

Project website: https://www.economiecirculaire.org/community/pg/groups/6832/

On December 2, 2019, employees of the MBM Research Group of the AdMaS Center organized an excursion for students of the M study program at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Brno University of Technology to an autoclaved aerated concrete production plant.

Students thus had a unique opportunity to see all stages of production from the preparation of raw materials, through the creation of building elements, to their expedition. A part of the excursion was also a lecture with a presentation of the complete product offer of the producer, including variants of placing the elements in the construction.

The interconnection of theory and practice is one of the cornerstones of study at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Brno University of Technology.

  

In the autumn, two foreign road researchers visited the AdMaS Center.

The first was dr. Min – Chih LIAO of NTUST Taiwan University (National Taiwan University of Science and Technology). Mr. Liao is also involved in research in the field of asphalt surfaces and the use of recycled materials in roads.

The second visitor was Dr. Daumantas Židanavičius from Lithuania, who during his visit to the Institute of Roads also lectured on “Capture existing site surface for road design” and  “Quantity calculation using drone site capturing”.

During the excursions in the AdMaS center, both researchers were acquainted with the equipment of the center, especially the road laboratory. Mr Liao has been able to make a preliminary agreement on possible future cooperation, in particular concerning exchanges.

In the autumn of 2019, practical training of students of the 3rd year of the course K within the subject Roads I (BM001) took place in the road laboratory of the AdMaS Research Center.

Students were able to see a practical demonstration of the production of asphalt mixture and were also acquainted with modern laboratory equipment of the laboratory (eg equipment for determination of anti-skid properties of pavement surfaces after smoothing or equipment for determination of stiffness and fatigue). Some of the students also had the opportunity to discuss with prof. Jan Kudrna, among others, a pioneer using asphalt modified with crushed rubber from old tires (so-called rubber-asphalt).

30