Research staff of the AdMaS center of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Brno University of Technology (VUT in Brno) led by Dr. Jakub Raček, received in early 2022 a two-year project financed by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports entitled “Circular economy in water management” from the activity of international cooperation in research and development to support the mobility of male and female researchers with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Department Water-Atmosphere-Environment.

In 2022, research activities are focused on basic principles, where available relevant national and international literature is primarily used to identify available and promising approaches and technologies for wastewater management in accordance with the principles of the circular economy. The priority is the use of waste as a resource and the energy balance of processes.

In 2023, the project is focused on identifying application possibilities, where the theoretical output from the first year will be transferred into a practice-oriented context with regard to local (national) specific boundary conditions.

On June 7-9, 2022, a “kick-off” meeting of the international project was held in the AdMaS center with the participation of BOKU representatives and the current activities of the AdMaS center were presented. At the same time, the Faculty of Civil Engineering BUT was introduced and the possibilities of further cooperation were presented.

On September 5-7, 2022, a second meeting took place in Vienna at BOKU with the participation of AdMaS representatives incl. personal participation of Mr. Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering BUT in Brno doc. Dufek with a focus on the current activities of colleagues from BOKU in the field of science and research, but also in the field of teaching programs. At the second meeting, among other things, mutual mobility of Ph.D. students and preparation of joint COST Action and Interreg V-A projects.

 

Research staff of the AdMaS Center of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Brno University of Technology (VUT in Brno) led by prof. Petr Hlavínek, on August 8-10, 2022, during their second trip to the University of Banka Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in cooperation with colleagues from the local university, they completed the installation of experimental green roof modules and put the online monitoring system into operation.

Following the goals of the international project financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic entitled “Using biochar as materially transformed waste for extensive green roofs” from the Strengthening the capacities of public universities in developing countries program, the staff of the AdMaS center (Dr. Raček, Dr. Chorazy and Ing. Novotný) completed the installation of experimental modules of green roofs and thus started an intensive research collaboration in the field of testing substrates with biochar content in green roofs under the weather conditions as well as the partial use of recycled materials in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As part of the testing, the effect of biochar on the substrate and on the vegetation of green roofs is now being investigated as a priority, the development and condition of the vegetation during the observed period of 1-2 years will also be documented. At the same time, the water retention capacity of individual substrates will be evaluated with regard to the measured rainfall and evapotranspiration from the vegetation areas will be calculated. The thermal properties of individual substrates are already being compared on the basis of temperature sensors placed at different depths in relation to the measured air temperature and solar radiation. Subsequently, physico-chemical analyzes of the organic component of the substrate, i.e. biochar, will be carried out and physico-chemical indicators of leachates from the artificial rain runoff of the individual modules will be evaluated.

In addition to the above, the experiment verifies the effectiveness of Czech utility model No. 34 637 “Substrate for green roofs“ developed by the author team of the Czech Technical University in Prague and the Technical University in Brno.

Apart from the work on the experimental modules of green roofs, further meetings took place with representatives of the University of Banja Luka, and research topics and possibilities for the mobility of master and Ph.D. students were discussed.

The complation of the second trip at the University of Banja Luka was a meeting with representatives of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Sarajevo, which is responsible for this international project. The team of researchers from the AdMaS center, which was also accompanied on this trip by the vice-dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, doc. Zdeněk Dufek, Ph.D., presented his goals and the current status of the project solution. Representatives of the Czech Embassy, ​​namely the consul and head of development cooperation Mgr. Štěpán Šantrůček and the coordinator of development cooperation Mrs. Nejra Bučo discussed with the project team and representatives of the University of Banja Luka other possibilities that are offered as part of the Czech Republic’s development aid to Bosnia and Herzegovina, in particular the scholarship program for studying at Czech public universities.

 

 

 

 

This is an international project with ID: 22220131 with the financial support of Visegrad+ Grand, a grant program financed by the international Visegrad Fund, aimed at facilitating support from the V4 countries primarily towards the Eastern Partnership countries and countries of the Western Balkans. The project is therefore implemented by the V4 countries, i.e. the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia together with the Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e. the Western Balkans countries, with a focus on facilitating the dissemination the know-how and best practices of the V4 countries, on democratization, civil society development, political, economic and social transformation, EU approximation and EU integration, good governance and regional cooperation.

The implementation of the project is planned for the period 20/9/2022 – 31/12/2023 with a total budget of € 32 950.

The main aim of this project is to improve a cooperation of leading wastewater management institutions, to exchange knowledge and experiences, and to create synergies in the conditions of Central Europe. The following three topics will be addressed:

• possibilities to reuse treated wastewater from municipal wastewater treatment plant;
• sustainable sewage sludge management including resource recovery (nutrients) in the blue-green infrastructure;
• integration of energy from wastewater.

The target group is university teachers, research and scientific workers, students (master`s and doctoral programs), government officials, representatives of municipalities (cities and towns), and commercial entities.

The ambition of the project is to involve at least 1,000 people from the project partner countries (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Bosnia and Herzegovina). Of these, 700 will be people from V4 countries.

The applicant and coordinator of the project is the Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering, research centre AdMaS, represented by prof. Ing. Petr Hlavínek, CSc. MBA.

The project partners are Technical university of Košice, Rzeszow University of Technology, University of Miskolc, University of Banja Luka.

On August 12, 2022, the AdMaS Center joined the summer school program on the topic of urban engineering and urbanism. Students from 5 European countries participated in the summer school. An interesting program of professional excursions at the AdMaS Center was provided by Ing. Arnošt Vespalec in the field of 3D printing, from the field of mobile mapping dr. Zdeněk Krejza, from the field of blue-green infrastructure dr. Tomáš Chorazy, from the field of designing and testing concrete mixes, defects and breakdowns of road prefabs Ing. Denisa Jančaříková. The coordinator of the professional excursion was dr. Šárka Keprdová.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As part of the EPILOT project, the CAMEB National Competence Center, funded by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, researchers of the AdMaS Center develop and test energy piles – thermally activated foundation piles, which are located under buildings and ensure the stability of buildings. Experts from the AdMaS Center (Advanced Materials, Structures and Technologies) and the Department of Geotechnics, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Brno University of Technology are working on this project.

The required temperature inside buildings is between 20-26 ° C all year round. “If we were to draw heat from the outside air in the winter, we would have to transform it, for example, from minus 10 ° C to plus 40 ° C for heating purposes. However, the soil has a stable 9 ° C in our climatic conditions. It is much more economical to collect heat from the ground than from the air, because such an amount of energy is not consumed for its transformation in a heat pump, “describes doc. Šikula.

Even more effective is the use of subfloor temperature in the summer months. “With the help of an energy pilot, we draw coldness from the ground and use it to cool a flat building. We don’t even need a heat pump, we only pump cold through an exchanger, which lowers the water temperature in the building’s cooling circuits. The whole thing is extremely cheap and energy-efficient, “he describes.

Link to whole article: https://vedavyzkum.cz/inovace/inovace/brnensti-odbornici-testuji-novou-technologii-vytapeni?fbclid=IwAR3m-wK2SveZXQvdgIvhv4hZYAa4u7pPz6I9XfZoRIm-a1mr5oqYtVH

From 20 to 22 June 2022, the event “Come with us to create the world around us” took place in the area of the AdMaS Center, the purpose of which was to increase the popularity of the Faculty of Civil Engineering among high school and grammar school students. The event was attended by about 300 students. The students were divided into small groups, which were accompanied throughout by group leaders from among our colleagues. At each stand, two groups always competed against each other, and the group that completed the task gained a better point. The group of students with the highest total number of points earned received a bag with items reminiscent of this event.

The event was organized by the director of the AdMaS Center, dr. Krejza and his team in cooperation with a team from the Department of Internal and External Relations, which also included the faculty mascot Beaver. Representatives of several departments of the Faculty of Civil Engineering at BUT took care of the students’ entertaining and educational program at 8 locations. At the 1st site, the Institute of Architecture provided activities connected with the presentation of the principles of urban planning and a demonstration of the obstacles of handicapped people in everyday life. At the 2nd site, the Institute of Geotechnics presented the importance of the basic conditions for the long-term stability of the building and prepared a practical demonstration of rock recognition and determination of their origin. At the 3rd site, the Institute of Construction Testing demonstrated the meaning of the serviceability limit state and prepared a practical demonstration of the effect of loading on the deformation of horizontal structures. At the 4th station, the Institute of Construction Economics and Management prepared for students a managerial call connected with the project management of the lego construction. The task of the students was to ensure the construction of the building according to the model as cheaply as possible and in the shortest possible time. At the 5th site, the Institute of Geodesy presented the possibilities of using modern GPS devices to find the exact position in the field, which is a prerequisite for each demarcation of the object before construction begins. At the 6th station, the Institute of Technology of Building Materials and Components bothered students with determining the bulk density of various materials, which at the same time had to be identified only by touch. At the 7th site, the Institute of Civil Engineering prepared a model of a housing unit, which students had to equip as efficiently as possible, find the best orientation of the housing unit towards the world and, as a bonus, students had to think about the functionality of individual layers of green roofs. At the 8th station, the Institute of Municipal Water Management made students think about the consumption of drinking water in the household and how the used water is drained outside the building.

The anonymous voting of the students showed that the most entertaining activities were project management of the Lega building, finding the exact location using a GPS device and demonstrating the obstacles of handicapped people in everyday life.

Due to the positive feedback from high school and grammar school students and their teachers, we are already thinking today about how to improve the whole event for next year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Researchers of the AdMaS Center of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Brno University of Technology (BUT) led by prof. Petr Hlavínek, at the beginning of 2022 they received an annual project financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic entitled “Use of biochar as materially transformed waste for extensive green roofs” from the program Strengthening the capacity of public universities in developing countries.

The first working trip to the University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina took place on 9-11 May 2022. As part of the international project, experimental green roof modules were installed, a “kick-off” meeting of the international project was held with the participation of the management of the Faculty of Agronomy and the current activities of the AdMaS center were presented. At the same time, the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Brno University of Technology was introduced and the possibilities of further cooperation were presented.

The currently solved project serves mainly to get to know both educational and research institutions, in the coming years it is expected to submit applications for another grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, the subject of which should be program.

The Technology Agency of the Czech Republic noticed the interesting outputs of the REVOZIM project – “Water and waste recycling within the green infrastructure of cities”. The REVOZIM project responds to the need, especially for smaller towns and municipalities, to comprehensively address water management and improve the quality of life in accordance with the principles of Smart City and the principles of circular economy in municipalities of up to ten thousand inhabitants. The AdMaS Center participates in the research in a fundamental way, because it is on AdMaS that experimental modules of green roofs are installed, the substrate of which is prepared from the mentioned recycled materials.

The University Center for Energy Efficient Buildings of the Czech Technical University, Sedum Top Solution and GreenVille service also collaborated on the research project with the AdMaS FAST BUT Center. It was financially supported by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TA CR) within Programu Národní centra kompetence.

Výzkumníci proměnili suť a kal v materiál pro střechy či koberce | BusinessInfo.cz

The project “For healthier and better water in Brno” implemented in cooperation with Brno Waterworks and Sewerage, a.s. and ALS Czech Republic s.r.o. In accordance with the assignment, the project team led by Prof. Hlavínek focused on monitoring the sources of drinking water for Brno and at the same time monitoring the wastewater produced in the city of Brno. As part of the annual campaign, the researchers of the AdMaS Center focused on the content of pesticides, drugs, hormones, microplastics in drinking water and came to a positive conclusion that both treated drinking water and surface and underground drinking water sources for Brno are high quality non-life-threatening micropollutants, hormones, narcotics.

In addition, during wastewater monitoring, they focused on the presence of industrial substances and heavy metals and found that wastewater is polluted as expected and, based on the monitored indicators, contains microplastics, pesticides, but also narcotics and other monitored substances (heavy metals, etc. .). Experts point out that technologies for the removal of micro-pollution in wastewater already exist. However, these are not yet widespread in practice, partly because the legislation of the Czech Republic does not require this.

On March 29, 2022, Professor Lina Sakalauskiené, Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering from Vilnius University of Applied Engineering Sciences, visited the AdMaS Center together with Erasmus Coordinator Inga Piščikiené. Director dr. Krejza introduced the AdMaS Center and presented the centre’s research activities. As part of the guided tour of the center, the Dean was interested in the technical equipment and opportunities for research cooperation in a number of construction areas. At the end of the tour of the center, the Dean actively participated in the recycling of unused plastic filaments from 3D printers, from which the equipment of the rest room for students of the Faculty of Civil Engineering in building Z is created.