On April 2, 2019, an excursion for students of the Institute of Forensic Engineering took place in the AdMaS Center. Students visited the center together with doc. Holcner. The excursion focused mainly on the influence of different road surfaces on the anti-skid properties of roads and their testing. The students were also acquainted with the main testing facilities the center owns.
Director of AdMaS Research Center, dr. Zdeněk Dufek, attended the international conference Inland Navigation for the 21st Century, which took place in Prague on 1 April 2019. In his contribution he informed about the progress of the project of our research center focused on the design of technical regulations for the safe construction and operation of LNG refueling stations. This alternative fuel is becoming a reality even in the Czech Republic. Last year, the Ministry of Transport announced a subsidy call to support the construction of LNG refueling stations, which were used by several entities. By 2022, more than a dozen LNG refueling stations can be expected to be put into operation. Among other things, it offers the possibility of placing LNG stations in ports close to major road routes. To do this, it will be needed to create safety regulations so that the stations can be designed, commissioned and operated safely.
Two of our PhD students, Ing. Pavel Sperka and Ing. Jiri Sachr, who work on research projects at the road laboratory of the AdMaS Center, participated in the international conference Celebrating 20 Years Road Materials and Pavement Design at the end of March 2019. The conference was held in Lisbon, Portugal, and presented the best contributions in the RMPD scientific journal on road construction materials.
As part of the conference, they were able to establish contact with a portugese professor, Ana Chistina Freire, who is engaged in testing reinforced asphalt layers with glass and carbon fiber grids. In addition, a meeting with a professor from India, Krishna Prapoorna, who is engaged in the development and testing of asphalt mixtures with rubber modified asphalt rubber (crushed old tires) took place. Subjects of both of these meetings are very closely related to research projects that are, or have been, solved in the AdMaS Research Center, and may potentially help future international collaboration.
On March 11, 2019, the Povodí Morava held its regular meeting at the Admas Center.
Before the start, the Technical and Operational Director, Ing. David Fína, and CEO, MVDr. Václav Gargulák, met the director of the AdMaS Center, JUDr Ing. Zdeněk Dufek, Ph.D., and discussed the areas of possible cooperation. This was followed by a presentation of the center, the meeting itself and an afternoon tour of the individual laboratories.
On March 11-22, 2019, a Russian student from Kalashnikov State Technical University, Aleksandr Gumenyuk (Александр Гуменюк), was trained at the AdMaS Center. As part of this internship, he worked on his master’s thesis devoted to extending durability and optimizing the mechanical properties of sulfur-containing cement composites. During his internship he used mainly computer tomography and scanning electron microscopy to study the microstructure of the materials being developed.
The Brno City Hall will be assisted with cases of more serious violation of the static state of buildings this year by an expert team from the Brno University of Technology. For example, it will focus on the Lužánky Leisure Center. This week, the councilor approved the free cooperation agreement between the city and the university.
The city owns a number of objects that have been damaged by statics. An example is the Lužánky Leisure Center. Here, this year’s dry summer and the overall change in climatic conditions have affected the geological conditions to such an extent that the side wing of the building has found itself practically in disrepair.
What measures to take to make such objects safe again are suggested by expert team from the Faculty of Civil Engineering – AdMaS Center. The AdMaS experts even want to provide the city with the necessary expertise for free. “The Faculty of Civil Engineering will include the evaluated objects in the practical training of specialized subjects in higher grades, including the offer of topics for the final theses of the students,” said Assoc. Prof. Pavel Schmid for VUT.
The output of the cooperation will be, along with the necessary effective proposals for appropriate building measures, common professional publications or contributions at professional conferences. “One of the goals of AdMaSu is to create a methodology for exploring damaged buildings. This will become an important tool not only for the staff of the property management department, but also for the housing and investment departments when commissioning construction and technical surveys. It is often very difficult to determine in advance what the survey provider is supposed to do, that is to say that the assignment contains only the necessary information and does not neglect any important action, ”said Oliver Pospíšil, Deputy Mayor of Housing and Property Management.
The representatives of the AdMaS Center participated on 26 February 2019 in the event organized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Prague called BIM Concept 2022. The aim of this event was to familiarize key stakeholders in the process of introducing BIM technology in the Czech Republic with their activities and to allow for discussion. Representatives of the state administration, major public contracting authorities, designers, contractors, engineering chambers and universities presented their progress. AdMaS Center activities were presented at the event by the Center’s Director, Dr. Zdeněk Dufek. Among other things, he provided information on the BIM lifelong learning course, the completed public monograph on Public Construction, on the development of BIM models as a basis for evacuation models of people and models of smoky spaces and on a project that the Center will address within the National Competence Center CAMEB relating to linking virtual reality and BIM.
On 21 and 22 February 2019, two Lithuanian colleagues from Kaunas Technical University visited the Faculty of Civil Engineering and the AdMaS Center. Both guests took a round of the center accompanied by doc. Karel Dvorak, prof. Rudolf Hela and doc. Lenka Bodnarova, then visited the accredited testing room with Ing. Adam Hubacek. The Director of the Building Materials and Construction Research Center, Ernestas Ivanauskas, along with Project Manager Audrius Grinys, showed an interest in close cooperation in the field of concrete and concrete testing, as well as in the field of building materials microstructure analysis. Both visitors appreciated the high level of expertise of the researchers and the hardware and technical equipment of the TBM and MBM research groups.
On 18 – 19 February 2019, the EGAR RG, together with colleagues from Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno and ZERA Agency (Agricultural and Environmental Regional Agency, zs.) participated in an excursion to the WWTP Linz – Unkel near Bonn, Germany.
At this wastewater treatment plant, a unique PYREG facility is operated, which provides pyrolysis treatment of sewage sludge. The project, funded by the German government and taking into account the amended German Sewage Sludge Decree, is interesting from two perspectives. It uses phosphorus, resp. the PYREG plant drains the sewage sludge, carbonizes it, disinfects it and can be used as a soil conditioner or fertilizer with high bioavailable phosphorus content. Furthermore, it is a device that is autothermal – pure energy from the treated sewage sludge is used for plant operation.
The EGAR research group, together with its partners, is engaged in microwave torrefaction of sewage sludge, which is one of the forms of low temperature pyrolysis. In the AdMaS center, within the scope of the research, dried sewage sludges from various large WWTPs on laboratory equipment are tested, as well as in a small pilot plant with a capacity of about 10 kg of dry sewage sludge per experiment. The RG EGAR also shares similar goals with the German colleagues – to transform the sewage sludge with the technology into a carbonaceous product with a wide application – in agriculture, energy, or as a filter medium.
The aim of the excursion was to exchange contacts and experience from the operational application of technology, the possibility of comparing legislation, when the Czech Republic is currently deciding how to deal with future treatment of sewage sludge, and the so-called German route is one of the options. At the same time, RG EGAR received samples of carbonaceous product, which can be further compared with its own development.
