THORAX · NEXT GENERATION OF ADVANCED COMPOSITE MATERIALS FOR SUSTAINABLE RETROFITTING OF STRUCTURES
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-09-08 → 2023-09-07
- EU contribution
- €153,085
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
NEXT GENERATION OF ADVANCED COMPOSITE MATERIALS FOR SUSTAINABLE RETROFITTING OF STRUCTURES
Past earthquakes showed that structures composed of reinforced concrete frames infilled with masonry walls are often not able to meet adequate safety margins during increased seismic activities. Only in 2023, two high-magnitude earthquakes (Turkey-Syria and Marrakesh-Safi) devastated the two countries with large stock of masonry structures, also including residential buildings killing more than sixty thousands of people and causing massive damage to the households and infrastructure, with the repair costs still being estimated. The current global challenges to reduce CO2 emissions, which of large part comes from construction industry, require development of new construction materials, which are not only robust and effective but can also mitigate this impact. As known, big part of the current C02 emissions comes from the construction sector and recent reports estimate that buildings are responsible for as much as 35% of the energy consumption and 38% of the CO2 emissions globally. The main objective of THORAX was to develop the next generation of advanced composite materials for retrofitting of substandard structures such as masonry infilled reinforced concrete buildings – structures, which have shown to have not adequate margins of safety, especially during seismic actions. The new composite material aimed to combine sustainable textile reinforced mortars (TRM) and standard expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation, thus offering a retrofitting system, which can tackle the structural problems, and, at the same time, deal with energy deficiencies of such buildings.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Owing to the poor seismic design and the absence of strict energy performance regulations, the vast majority of the existing old building stock in seismic-prone areas is not only highly vulnerable to earthquakes, but also energy demanding. Currently, structural and energy retrofitting of buildings is treated separately with no established holistic approach. An integrated retrofitting system using advanced composite materials combined with thermal insulation can improve the seismic and energy performance of buildings and offer savings in application costs (>25%). During the last two decades, the use of fibre-reinforced composite materials for structural retrofitting applications has gained popularity. The recent generations of advanced composites for construction have proven to be very effective in seismic retrofitting of structures. However, they are often expensive, lead to incompatibility issues, and promote the use of cement-based binders, of which the production largely contributes to the global CO2 emissions (5% of global man-made CO2 emissions). The main objective of THORAX is to develop the next generation of sustainable fibre-reinforced composite materials to be used for the combined structural and energy retrofitting of buildings, protecting the residents during earthquakes, whilst increasing their energy performance. The efficiency of this novel retrofitting system will be investigated through a multi-scale experimental campaign accompanied with a detailed numerical investigation. The host organisation has a leading expertise in the fields of fibre-reinforced composites and seismic retrofitting techniques. This project, along with training schemes available at the host university and secondment at a word-class research centre, will create great opportunities for the Fellow to develop his career as an independent researcher.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- PANEPISTIMIO THESSALIAS · VOLOSCoordinatorGreece
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union