On 23.11.2018, AdMaS employees of the Microstructure of Building Materials Research Group 23 organized an excursion for Building Material Engineering students to a production plant for autoclaved aerated concrete. Students thus had the unique opportunity to see all phases of production from raw materials to building components after their expedition. The interconnection of theory and practice is one of the basic stones of study at the M field of Faculty of Civil Engineering BUT.
On April 16, 2018, Admas hosted the second excursion of Lifelong Learning course participants focused on the so-called circular economy. Course organizers, Faculty of Environmental Protection of ICT Prague, and its partners, Institute of Circular Economics, r.i., SUEZ Resource use and the Czech Association of Circulation, has chosen the AdMaS Center with regard to its current activities in the concerned area but also beacuse of the technical and technological background of the Center.
The organizers and participants primarily expressed their interest in the area of waste management, which is focus mainly of the research groups EGAR, Building Technologies and Microstructure of Building Materials. There was a demonstration of technologies for energy recovery from wastewater, biohazard use by microwave depolymerization technologies, possibilities of using gray water in the Czech conditions or cleaning of organically polluted water by anaerobic membrane unit technologies with nutrient picking. Participants further acquainted with the technical equipment for diagnostics of newly developed materials from recycled raw materials (glass, slag, polystyrene and others) – X-ray tomograph, devices for diagnostics of thermal technical properties, acceleration of aging, corrosion chambers.
The activities of individual research groups were also briefly presented, with an emphasis on the possibilities of comprehensive solution of problems in the field of construction and resource use.
Participants from technology, consultancy, and universities took part in the course to acquire specific knowledge in the field of emerging circulatory discipline supported by the European Commission, which will influence a wide range of activities in the coming years from product development and production, recycling technology, waste management, marketing, environmental protection, and corporate social responsibility. The transition from the linear to the circulating economy will change the resource-intensive approaches and will have a major impact on the development of new technologies and employment in the EU.
On 10.11. – 13.11. 2018 prof. Jan Kudrna and Ing. Pavel Šperka visited CONSULTEST AG laboratory in Ohringen, Switzerland.
During the visit, there were discussions about the research projects dealing with in the AdMaS Road Laboratory. Among other things, they debated the new high-modulus EME asphalt mixtures, which the Swiss experts have a big experience with and which are not used often for the roads in Czech Republic. After the discussion followed a visit to a lab and to buildings where these top asphalt mixes were used.
Last but not least, there was an excursion to the FBB plant in Hinwil, one of the most modern plants in Switzerland. The FBB representative made the visitors see it through the entire packaging plant. This plant is completely roofed and the aggregate or recycled material is stored in large roofed landfills, which is unparalleled to anything in Czech Republic. At the same time, it is equipped with a parallel drum, which allows the high proportion of recycled material (so-called R-material) to be delivered to new asphalt mixtures.
Based on the experience from Swiss colleagues the visitors realized that there is still a lot to be learned and to be improved in Czech Republic. In conclusion, this foreign journey was very stimulating and brought a lot of new ideas into the projects solved within the AdMaS Center.
The AdMaS Center, in cooperation with 3i – Isolet, s.r.o., participates in the solution to increase safety on construction sites.
Falling into shafts, skylights, passages or other openings in ceiling or other horizontal structures is one of the risks during construction. The solution consists in securing these holes in a monolithic horizontal structure. Instead of building up ramps and temporary railing around these holes, SAFETY BLOCK is inserted into the hole, filling the space for the future opening in the ceiling structure. Subsequently, after hardening of the monolithic structure, the block is removed completely or partially as needed.
In the AdMaS Center have been verified mechanical properties which are related to the possibility of walking on the embedded blocks in the monolithic structure, and the secure transfer of load that can be derived by moving workers during construction. In load tests, which should simulate the feet of the human leg, a very high load capacity has been achieved. Due to testing in the center of Admas, safety has been verified in terms of load bearing capacity, even on joints of boards bonded together with polyurethane foam or building cement based adhesive. This is a very interesting solution to increase safety on site.
On Thursday, November 8, 2018, Minister of Agriculture, Ing. Miroslav Toman, CSc., accompanied by Ing. Dana Vecerova from the Cabinet of the Minister, visited the Center
Visitors attended a meeting with the center’s staff, reviewed the structure of the center, future and current projects on rain and gray water management, forest and peat fire, risk analysis of drinking water systems, a passport for building and service stations and pipelines for irrigation and discussed other drought-related projects.
On 26.10, the delegation from Slovenian Turvac visited AdMaS . Turvac is one of the leading manufacturers of super-insulation materials used in both the construction and industrial sectors. As part of this visit was a tour of the AdMaS Center’s premises and research facilities and an agreement about the cooperation between Turvac and the AdMaS Center in 2019.
The AdMaS Center succeeded in CAMEB in October 2018, part of the programme to support applied research, experimental development and innovation of the National Competence Center, which aims to promote long-term collaboration between the research and application sphere and to strengthen the institutional base of applied research.
The motivation for the creation of the CAMEB center is the decline, resp. the reduction of non-renewable natural resources, both material and energy, and the impact of this phenomenon on construction. The current trend of massive energy savings in building operations brings significant improvements in operating energy, but the material and energy intensity of construction is so steep. CAMEB therefore associates partners with such competencies that will enable better use of resources in the construction industry in the spirit of circular economy principles, particularly in the areas of materials, structures, indoor environment and energy and water management. These areas will be supported by modern technologies in the field of digitization, optimization, modeling and efficient process management.
The partners of the project are the Czech Technical University in Prague, the Technical University of Liberec, the Mendel University in Brno and 26 private sector companies.
On October 22, 2018, a joint workshop was held with CEITEC representatives. CEITEC researchers are preparing a testbed project for Průmysl 4.0. We believe that our geodesists and structural diagnostics experts will also be involved in the project as it will be necessary to determine the exact location of the machines and to solve the interaction of the machines with the building.
Representatives of the AdMaS Center, headed by the Director and by Professor Kudrna, participated in the Road Conference in Ostrava from 17 to 18 October 2018, where they represented the research and the activities of the AdMaS Center and FAST as a whole.
During the conference, the Czech Road Company awarded the FAST graduate, Ing. Pavel Coufalík, Ph.D., who obtained the diploma for the 1st place in the dissertation thesis 2018 for the Rheological properties of asphalt binders, for which the equipment of the AdMaS center was used.
Congratulations!
As in previous years, this year AdMaS was also attending a great Science Night held on October 5, 2018 from 18:00 to 24:00. This time there were two cars l carrying the children and their parents from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Veveří Street to the center in Medlánky neighborouhood and back. In our premises we were happy to welcome children of all ages and degrees of curiosity for whom we have set up this program:
Pavilion P1
Laboratory of Road Construction:
• Demonstration of mixing of asphalt mixtures, including the production of test ensembles (the manufactured test ensembles can be carried away by the visitors as a small souvenir item).
• Can the asphalt surface absorb water? Practical demonstration of drainage carpet.
• Fire tests for asphalt surfaces – video demonstrations.
• Surface roughness of different road types – stop in time?
• The effect of the color of clothing on the visibility of people at night? Examples of reflective horizontal marking.
Laboratory of Construction Structures:
• Limit load bearing capacity of structural members. Visitors estimate the ultimate load-bearing capacity of the structural element of the given profile and the selected material in the bend under the boundary conditions of the plain bearing and the loading of two loads in the middle of the span. The real load capacity will be experimentally verified on the universal test machine, including tracking the violation of the selected model.
• Games with the center of gravity of the bodies. Identify the correct center of gravity determination of regular and irregular shapes verified at vertical stroke.
Pavilion P2
Concrete Technology Laboratory:
• Material disturbances from near.
• How many building materials will it last?
• Can you recognize building material?
Laboratory of Building Materials:
• Demonstration of devices and equipment for the examination of the properties of building materials.
• A view of the objects around us – X-ray tomography seriously and unconsciously.
• Light spells to display the structure of materials.
• Devil is hiding in details – possibilities of electron microscopy.
Pavilion P4
Geodesy:
• Cloudy Cloud – A sample of laser scanning.
• Panorama of ladybird or what LadyBug can do.
Urban Engineering:
• Samples with sampler!
Building construction:
• Unmanned aerial aircraft simulator; hard on the drill field on the battlefield!
• The corner of Liebherr working models for children
Mathematical modeling (3D printer):
• Spatial materials.
• Periodic minimum areas, bio-inspired geometry and other mechanically beneficial structures.
Pavilion H
Laboratory of fire resistance of building components:
• Demonstration of flammability of various building materials.
• Fire resistance of structures – how to do it?
