the adventures of a concrete researcher - or how i ended up breaking bridges for a living
TRANSCRIPT
Eva Lantsoght, Ph.D.
10/5/2016
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A bit about working in a Concrete Structures lab
Consider graduate school
o Research is a lot of fun
As explained with my story
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1992: Dirk Frimout
First Belgian in space
Electrical Engineering and
applied physics
Engineering studies!
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Regina Pacis Hove
Studies: Latin-Mathematics (8)
Lacking science education
Graduation Project: History –
Politics:
Analyzing the Lebanese Civil War
Part-time music and spoken
word/theater
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2003: Entrance exam (math)
Only 6 universities in BE
General Engineering, BSc
level, 2 years
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2005: Civil & Environmental Engineering
(specialization)
2006: Reinforced Concrete Design
o Only 1 semester
o RC I & II, Eurocodes
o Difficult material behavior
o … but so interesting once it “clicks”
2007: Internship at Establis
o Steel design & calculation spreadsheets
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2007: summer job at
Ney & Partners
o Bridges
o Spreadsheets for
concrete structures
2008: MSc Thesis on
buckling of concrete
column
o Purely analytical work
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2008-2009: M.S. in
Structural Engineering
Research Project:
Punching of RC slabs
o Slabs!
o Punching!
More analytical work
Funding: BAEF + Fulbright
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2009-2013: PhD in Civil
Engineering
Concrete Structures research
group
Research-based PhD
Teaching assistant + guest
lecturer
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Experimental work
2,5 years of breaking slabs of 10 ton
156 experiments
Analytical work
Plasticity-based model
Relability analysis of test data
Practical application
Quick Scan with Rijkswaterstaat
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Stevin II Laboratory
o Max load 10 MN (1000 ton)
o Bridge crane of 12 ton capacity
o Structures up to 40 m x 20 m x 8,5 m
o 10 climate rooms
o Casting room
o Drilling and sawingworkshop
o ….
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Many surprises
Seeing, feeling,
understanding the behavior
of slabs
Connection between
experiments and theory and
practice (Ministry)
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Testing big things = team
work
Planning
Start analyzing and writing
early on
Course-correct where
needed
Automate processes
o E.g. data processing in Matlab
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5 PhD students on
shear at the same time
Great discussions
Helping out in the lab
Significant progress on
shear in existing
structures
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2010: UK, Denmark
2011: USA (2x), Czech
Republic
2012: Italy, Germany, USA
2013: USA (2x), Israel,
Netherlands, Japan, South
Africa, Australia
Building up a network
o Concrete world
o fib, ACI, IABMAS, TRB
o Academic network
across disciplines
• Blog
Independence in
research
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Science = fun
“The Pleasure of
Finding Things Out”
Go where no one has
gone before
Autonomy
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2013 – present
First years: developing courses
Working on publications from
PhD Thesis
2013 – 2016: Starting USFQ
ICV-Laboratory
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Setting up own research lines:o Existing Bridges
o Difficulties: • contact with Ministry of
Transportation?
• Information is missing
• No awareness
• Laboratory and tools: limited
• No “research group”
o Solution:• Desk research
• Presentations to raise awarenessabout existing structures
• Service: international committees
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2013 – present: 0,2 fte
Short projects -> Research
line
Summer 2013:
o Revision of QS spreadsheets
for Ministry
Summer 2014:
o Fatigue of HSC for new code
o Ruytenschildt Bridge test
Breaking bridges
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Summer 2015:
o Study of ASR effect on
existing bridges
o Proof load test of
viaduct Zijlweg
o Support in proof loading
research
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Summer 2016
o Definition of research line: proof
loading
o Beam tests + analysis
o Analysis of viaduct De Beek proof
load test
o Thorough literature review
o Overview of proof loading research
in NL
o Draft guidelines
o Vechtbrug: Fall 2016
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Pageviews > 1,5 million
673 published posts
Mostly aimed at PhD students
Most popular post: 20 Tips for
Surviving your PhD
http://phdtalk.blogspot.com/2013
/09/20-tips-for-surviving-your-
phd.html
Guest writer for other blogs
o Recently: Wiley and QS
Support from M&C, TU Delft
Sponsorship AcademicTransfer
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16 journal papers (published and in press)
o all as first author
5 special publications (published and in press)
31 conference papers
33 research reports
1 essay
1 book
25 journal and conference papers in Scopus
Reviewer for 9 journals
4 ACI Committees, 2 TRB committees, IABMAS, IALCCE
Scientific Committee IABSE 2017
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A bit about working in a Concrete Structures lab
Consider graduate school
o Research is a lot of fun
As explained with my story
10/5/2016 34
Contact:
Eva Lantsoght