Research topic “Sustainability and Infrastructure“
Societal challenges: Conceptualization, planning, design, construction of buildings under consideration of maintenance, demolishment and recyclability within the framework of a circular economy. Durability and extended lifetime of new buildings and maximizing the remaining lifetime of existing buildings as well as low primary energy consumption of material processing and of buildings in service, innovative maintenance and repair methods, adaptivity of structures and use of artificial intelligence implemented by digital control, sophisticated measuring technology and sensing are on the research agenda.
Input of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (selection): Understanding construction damage processes and their prevention, effective test procedures for building materials and constituents, research on particularly endangered and dangerous buildings, research on binders, advanced technical building equipment and thermal insulation, development of nano-, micro- and macrostructured hybrid materials, early detection and localization of defects in constructions using acoustic methods, contributions in standards committees.
Institutes and cooperation partners: Building Materials, Building Physics and Building Chemistry; Concrete Structures; Digital and Autonomous Construction; Metal and Composite Structures; Geotechnical Engineering and Construction Management; Structural Analysis. Contribution to the DFG Priority Programs (SPP) 2020 and 2388 as well as to the DFG Research Training Group (GRK) 2462, cooperations with national and international universities and research institutions (e.g. Hemholtz-Zentrum Hereon), services for governmental institutions, companies and associations.
The research topic is being addressed in the research focus areas Civil Infrastructure Systems and Advanced Materials.
The research topic is an essential part of the interdisciplinary research fields Logistics, Mobility & Infrastructure, Environmental & Energy Systems und Advanced Materials & (Bio-)Processes.
The following degree programs address contents of the research topic: Civil and Environmental Engineering (B.Sc.), Civil Engineering (M.Sc.), Water and Environmental Engineering (M.Sc.).
