A group made up of twenty-five Structural Engineering and Design students from the Department of the Built Environment at Eindhoven University of Technology visited DECivil on February 29th. The visit was organized by their student association, KOers.

This began with a short tour of the Alameda campus. At the top of the South Tower they could enjoy the magnificent view over Lisbon.

During the visit, they visited the Structures and Strength of Materials Laboratory, where they were received by Professor José Oliveira Pedro. Here they had the opportunity to observe reinforced concrete beams reinforced with carbon fibers, FRP (fiber-reinforced polymer) profiles, metallic connections between composite material profiles, the lateral buckling of a large steel beam and stone masonry walls with various reinforcement solutions. The three-dimensional porch made up of composite fiberglass profiles and concrete slabs mounted on the seismic table, the wind tunnel and the wooden structure taken from a wall of an 18th century "cage building" in Baixa Pombalina were other points of interest.

They then visited the Construction Laboratory, where they were received by Professor Rita Nogueira. Here they had the opportunity to observe some equipment such as the conditioned curing chambers, carbonation and climatic chambers. They had contact with samples of sustainable concrete such as paving blocks produced with recycled aggregates, coconut fibers and rice husk, as well as samples of cement paste subjected to accelerated carbonation tests. They also observed various raw materials used in the production of sustainable concrete, such as construction and demolition waste, glass waste or electric furnace slag. Various equipment for the production and characterization of cement mixtures, such as presses for mechanical testing, Schmidt sclerometer, ultrasonic pulse velocity or pull-off equipment, were also the focus of attention.

After lunch, the students visited the Feira de Empresas at the Jornadas de Civil, where they were able to contact the various companies present at the event.

This was followed by a session of presentations of work by PhD students in Civil Engineering in the area of structures. This took place at the Museum.

The PhD student João Serra presented his work "Development of Models for the Dynamic Analysis of Floating Bridges", which aroused a lot of interest among the students.

The PhD student Sérgio Nascimento presented the work “Design of plate girders intermediate transverse stiffeners”, which included the experimental and numerical analysis of a steel plate girder that the students had observed in the laboratory.

DECivil thanks KOers for the visit and to everyone who made it possible: Mees Fabel (Commissioner of Public Relations & Vice Chairman of Koers), Professor José Oliveira Pedro, Professor Rita Vilela Nogueira, Professor Ricardo Vieira, João Serra, Sérgio Nascimento and Fórum Civil.