Prof. Ing. Jan Kudrna, CCs, spoke in a Czech Television report about the reason for eight-hour working hours on road and highway construction sites.
The session was broadcast on June 13, 2019 in Events in the Regions and in the Main News.
The whole report can be seen at:
https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/domaci/2841905-rozkopane-ulice-kolony-a-stavebni-stroje-stoji-delnici-v-brne-konci-s-praci-odpoledne?fbclid=IwAR04lbmz6WVbGCZvrpV2Oqiux8gKCRn5DohRrbUu5dSo0FlTNaO2q7Sj1BM
On the 28.5. – 5.6.2019, the traditional Field Training has been held in Staré Město pod Sněžníkem, which is intended for all students of the 3rd year of the bachelor’s degree in the field of Constructions and Traffic Structures.
Teaching is organized by the Institute of Railway Structures and Constructions in cooperation with the Institute of Roads and with the assistance of other institutes of the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Brno University of Technology. Also some researchers from the AdMaS Center participated in the lessons.
In the course of the training, the center equipment was used – the KRAB, measuring trolley, which is used to measure the geometrical parameters of the track (eg track gauge, elevation, mixture and track height). The students also took part in an excursion to the Dlouhé Stráně pumped-storage hydroelectric power station where diagnostics of the tank shell condition was underway. Prof. Kudrna was able to acquaint students with the details regarding the construction of the tank shell and the asphalt mixes used here.
On Wednesday, June 5th, 2019, an excursion from the Secondary School of Civil Engineering in Brno took place in the AdMaS Center.
The center was visited by over 70 third-year students with a pedagogical accompaniment and went through both Laboratories of Road Testing at P1 building and then through Laboratory of Geotechnics and Laboratory of Geodesy at P4 building.
Due to an excellent interpretation of the AdMaS staff, visitors were well introduced to the ongoing experiments, techniques and equipment of the center.
Researchers from the AdMaS Center, led by prof. Kudrna together with prof. Šťastník, diagnosed the sealing shell of the tank at Dlouhé Stráně on June 3, 2019. This tank serves as part of the Dlouhé Stráně pumped-storage hydro power plant. The tank shell is made up of asphalt layers and there are present faults on the shell surface.
On that day, the entire tank was drained and it was possible to get to the bottom itself. A visual inspection of the current condition was carried out on site and the locations of the core drilling sites to be investigated were indicated. This event was part of the project of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic TH04020154 entitled: “Optimization of construction, repairs and operation of asphalt-concrete sealing shells”.
A team of experts from BUT, headed by an employee of the AdMaS Center, dr. David Bečkovský, technically participated in the preparation of pilot grant programs for water retention in the city and the prevention of drought.
The conditions of the subsidy, and especially the idea of green roofs and the building of rainwater retention tanks in Brno, discussed with dr. Bečkovský editor of MF Dnes in an article dated 3.6.2019.
On April 10, April 12 and May 28, 2019, an excursion of secondary school students took place at AdMaS, namely the Secondary School of Chemistry in Brno and the Secondary School of Industry and Art in Hodonín. Students were acquainted with the laboratories and key equipments in detail and, among other things, they had the were offered to try to prepare a sample of the asphalt mixture themselves. Judging by the reactions of the students, both excursions were successful.
In the week of May 20-24, 2019, Doc. Héctor Cifuentes Bulte of the University of Sevilla from Spain was a guest of the Institute of Structural Mechanics (STM), FCE BUT, with the support of the Internationalization project and the Institute of Materials Physics of the ASCR, v. I. Primarily, his guides were doc. Stanislav Seitl, prof. Zbyněk Keršner and Ing. Petr Miarka.
Doc. Cifuentes is a prominent expert in describing the behavior of building materials with a focus on scattered reinforced concrete, including fracture-mechanical aspects of their response to both static and dynamic loading (one of his lectors during PhD studies was Professor Bhushan L. Karihaloo, an expert on fracture mechanic of construction concrete) .
The guest was interested in the activities of the Mathematical Modeling research group (MM) with an emphasis on numerical simulations of structural stresses using experimental data and on the functionality of the methodology of complex analysis of building elements based on cement composites. He also appreciated the above-standard experimental possibilities of the AdMaS Center.
The main occupation of doc. Cifuentes was deepening of exclusive international contact, consultations with academic staff of STM / MM and with doctoral and master degree students, consultations on common and planned experiments, preparation of joint publication etc.
At the STM, he presented the attractively prepared presentation of Tensile-Fracture Behavior of Ultra-High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced-Concrete Subject to High Temperatures. In the lecture he discussed in detail the tensile and fracture properties of selected fiber reinforced concrete with very high utility properties, especially the influence of steel scattered reinforcement and thermal action.
On Tuesday, May 14, 2019, with the participation of the Dean of FCE, prof. Ing. Miroslav Bajer, CSc., was held the premises of the AdMaS Research Center the 11th session of the Scientific Board of BIC Brno. The Chairman of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, prof. Ing. Petr Konvalinka, CSc., discussed with the members the news in the support of applied research.
At the beginning of the event, Zdeněk Dufek, Director of the AdMaS Research Center, presented the Center’s research programs to the participants. Currently, the up to date topic is projects focusing on the so-called circular economy, where construction waste is transformed into other raw materials by various forms and is then reused.
The meeting continued with the presentation of RNDr. Petr Pracna, CSc., from the Technology Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, who introduced the construction opportunities in the HORIZONT 2020 program. Then Ing. Karel Kouřil, Ph.D., Member of the Research, Development and Innovation Council, spoke on the Innovation Strategy of the Czech Republic in 2019-2030.
At the end of the board, guests visited the center’s premises and laboratories.
From April, 4 until May, 29 2019 a student of the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) doctoral study program , Ekaterina Karpova (Екатерина Карпова), is working in the Erasmus + program at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Brno University of Technology. As part of her PhD thesis and joint research, Ekaterina is interested in the impact of multi-layered carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the properties of cement mortars and concretes with different types of superplasticizers. In the experimental work, she uses mainly scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and porosimetry (MIP) to elucidate the microstructure of developed materials with different doses of MWCNTs. It also focuses on the effect of suspension, with dispersed MWCNTs, on the resulting physical and mechanical properties of hardened mortars and the type of superplasticizer used on the development and course of hydration heat. Based on the evaluation of these results, the most suitable superplasticizer is selected for further testing.
Head of Development of Advanced Building Materials Research Program, prof. Rostislav Drochytka, and Director of the AdMaS Center, dr. Zdeněk Dufek, visited the M.T.Kalašnikov State Technical University in Izhevsk, Russia in the last week of April. The aim of the trip was to develop cooperation on the development of new electroconductive composites for wide use in the construction industry using various types of secondary raw materials in the form of admixtures into composite materials.
Furthermore, the possibility of opening an international double degree study in doctoral study programs was discussed.
The Director of the Institute of Construction and Architecture, prof. Grigory Pervushin, and Head of the Institute of Geotechnics and Building Materials, prof. Gryigory Yakovlev took part in the meeting.
