Educational Courses

Please note that only 10 seats are available for this course every year!

Scope of the course:

- History of microscopy
- Optical microscopy and basic mineralogy
- Cement chemistry - hydration
- Concrete durability
- Concrete quality assessment
- Electron microscopy (ESEM)
- Specimen preparation
- Image analysis & stereology
- Hands-on-deck practical sessions

Purpose:

Both computational modeling and experimental measurements are crucial for improving the assured delivery, performance, and sustainability of concrete. For the last 23 years, this workshop has provided a forum for more than 600 students, faculty, and researchers from industry and government to learn more about computational and experimental methods that are being used to understand, predict, and improve concrete performance. The workshop's goal is to provide a background on the theoretical, computational, and experimental approaches to understanding the processing and performance of concrete materials.


Agenda:

The NIST Computer Modeling Workshop series focuses on the computational and experimental materials science of concrete, including simulation of microstructural development and prediction of physical properties. "Microstructure" ranges from nanometer to meter length scales, while physical properties include pressuredriven fluid transport, rheology, and mechanical properties. Lectures on experimental methods will show how techniques like neutron scattering, electron microscopy, and various Xradiation probes like diffraction and tomography are used to inform and validate models. This portion of the workshop will feature a series of tutorialstyle lectures, including a detailed handson tutorial on the installation and use of NIST's Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory software. Workshop participants will be given an opportunity to describe their own technical interests in 15minute presentations.


Registration:

The registration deadline is August 2, 2013.

Theme:

This course provides an overview of modeling approaches used in the mechanics of inelastic materials and structures, with special attention to the objective description of highly localized deformation modes such as cracks or shear bands. Last year it attracted 30 participants from 13 European countries and Canada. This year, the course is included among the RILEM educational courses.


Main topics:

Introduction: notation, fundamentals of tensor algebra, basic types of inelastic material behavior, principles of incremental-iterative nonlinear analysis.

Elastoplasticity: physical motivation, basic equations in one dimension, extension to multiaxial stress, postulate of maximum plastic dissipation, associated and nonassociated plastic flow, hardening and softening, tangent stiffness.

Fracture mechanics: stress concentration around defects, asymptotic fields in the vicinity of a crack tip, local and global criteria for crack propagation, fracture toughness and fracture energy, nonlinear process zone, cohesive crack models.

Damage mechanics: physical motivation, basic equations in one dimension, isotropic damage models, smeared crack models, anisotropic damage models based on principles of strain equivalence and of energy equivalence, damage deactivation due to crack closure, combination of damage and plasticity.

Strain localization: physical aspects, structural size effect, conditions of stability and uniqueness, discontinuous bifurcation, incipient weak discontinuity, localization analysis based on acoustic tensor, loss of ellipticity and its mathematical and numerical consequences, classification of models for localized inelastic behavior, mesh-adjusted softening modulus (crack band approach).

Regularized continuum models: classification of enriched continuum theories, nonlocal formulations of the integral type, explicit and implicit gradient formulations, continua with microstructure, localization analysis, implementation aspects, application examples.

Strong discontinuity models: cohesive crack and cohesive zone models, finite elements with incorporated discontinuities (embedded crack models, extended finite elements), implementation aspects and examples.


Level:

The course is designed for graduate students at the doctoral level, but it can be equally useful to motivated master students, post-doctoral researchers, or senior researchers who are not specialists in this field. Similar courses were given by the lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (1998), Czech Technical University in Prague (1998), Universität Stuttgart (1998), Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule in Aachen (1999), Universität der Bundeswehr in Munich (2000), and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona (2002). In its current format, the course has been taught in Prague every year since 2004.

Prerequisites: fundamentals of elasticity, plasticity and finite element methods.

A sample chapter of the lecture notes is available for free downloading. Note that this excerpt is taken from a rather old version of the lecture notes. The material distributed at the course has been updated and extended. The complete set of lecture notes has about 300 pages in a dense format.



Schedule:

Registration on Monday, September 16, from 8:15-9:00.
Morning sessions 9:00-10:15 and 10:45-12:00.
Afternoon sessions 14:00-15:15 and 15:45-17:00.
The last session on Friday afternoon will be reserved for general discussion.

The Multi-scale Modelling Course for Concrete (MMC2) provides the opportunity for participants to become familiar with modelling cementitious materials at different levels of detail. Different ways of schematization and numerical approaches are considered to simulate the chemical, physical and mechanical behaviour of cementitious materials. The main back-bone of the course are the different modelling levels at which heterogeneous and composite cementitious materials can be schematized and how these different levels can “communicate” by means of parameters passing methods or by using upscaling models. The modelling levels that will be distinguished in this course are the nano-, micro-, meso- and the macro-level. The course emphasizes different modelling approaches for each scale level and shows a few conceptual techniques of how the “numerical gaps” can be bridged. The nano-level deals with molecular dynamics of CSH gel, the micro-level with hydration and microstructure, the meso-level with fracture mechanics and brittleness and for the macro-scale level emphasis will be on early-age cracking of hardening concrete and how to use commercial FEM software.

For the course participants, the MMC2 course provides the chance to acquire a glance of the varieties of the numerical possibilities in an intensive course week of lectures and workshops. The course is set-up in such a way that theoretical lectures and practice workshops alternate day by day and, besides this, course participants are also invited to present their own work during elevator pitch presentations. There will be a mix of events and topics centred around the theme of multi-scale modelling that makes the course very “dynamic”.

Following the success of the past five MMC2 courses organized so far (Delft 2008, Nanjing 2009, Bilbao 2010, Delft 2011, Nanjing 2012), this year the course will again take place in Delft, in The Netherlands, and will be organized by the Microlab of Delft University of Technology. Lecturers are from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands and Tecnalia research institute for nano technology, Spain, where the micro- to macro-scale level will be provided by teachers from Delft University and the nano-scale level by a teacher from Tecnalia. The upscaling lectures will be a joint contribution of lecturers from TU Delft and Tecnalia. Models will be presented that address the interfaces between all levels of the course a real multi-scale modelling course, i.e. from nano-to-macro!


SUMMARY :
- Addressing lectures for nano to macro modelling.
- Theoretical and practical workshops on multi-scale modelling.
- Modelling mechanical, physical and chemical behaviour on different scale levels.
- Emphasizing different approaches of modelling and how “numerical gaps” can be bridge

Due to the limitation of 30 participants it would be recommended to register early.
Last minute applications can not be guaranteed enrollment to the course.

Objective and Concept:
The need for new and improved infrastructure of Latin American countries, pushed by the economic vitality of the region, is challenging the way concrete structures are designed and built, that requires revising in order to avoid the repetition of mistakes made by countries that followed that path years and even decades ago. These mistakes result in huge amounts of money being allocated to the undue maintenance and repair of existing construction. In emerging countries, this deprives the construction market of urgently needed resources for new constructions.

Traditionally, durability and service life design were issues reserved to the owners (typically governmental agencies and private promoters). Today, as a result of commonly applied Design, Build and Operate contracts, the constructors are also involved in service life design and assessment.

The scientific community have been following and sometimes leading the concern on durability issues. In the last 30 years, considerable progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms of deterioration of reinforced concrete structures and, particularly in the last decade, in developing testing methods and quantitative tools intended to predict the potential service life of such structures.

The organizers believe that tackling the issues of service life design and assessment requires a sound understanding of the microstructure of concrete (chiefly of the continuous media, the hardened cement paste) and on the mechanisms of mass transport through the material. Hence, the title and content of the offered workshop, which will be focused on the main and most widespread cause of deterioration of reinforced concrete structures: steel corrosion.

The first half of the Workshop’s lectures covers the chemical and physical aspects of the microstructure of concrete and the fundamentals of the main mechanisms by which matter penetrates and moves through the intricate pore structure of the material.

The general principles of corrosion of steel embedded in concrete structures subjected to CO2 and chloride rich environments will be discussed as well as the necessary conditions for deterioration.

The current trends in standards bodies to move from prescriptive to performance specifications will be discussed. Since performance needs adequate testing (both in the laboratory and on site), the current standardized test methods for durability will be thoroughly described, indicating their strengths and weaknesses and providing guidance on how to adequately interpret their results. Moreover, the participants will have one day dedicated to performing such tests or observing their main steps.

Finally, the hot topic of service life prediction will be tackled, describing several available methods, discussing their accuracy and their sensitivity to input variables. In order to strengthen the understanding of selected methods, participants will work in groups on purposely designed case studies, under the assistance of the lecturers, with a general discussion on the results achieved by each group.

It is expected that, at the end of the workshop, participants will have a stronger background to face the challenges posed by service life design of new constructions and assessment of existing structures.

Target Audience:
- Professional staff of Design, Consulting, Construction and Operating companies
- Professional staff of Governmental bodies for infrastructure, energy and housing
- Professional staff of suppliers of Construction Materials and Elements
- Members of the Scientific and Academic community
- Private Consultants
- Professional staff of Private and Public testing laboratories
- Advanced graduate and postgraduate University students

Please note that the dates and places have to be confirmed.

Objective and Concept:
The need for new and improved infrastructure of Latin American countries, pushed by the economic vitality of the region, is challenging the way concrete structures are designed and built, that requires revising in order to avoid the repetition of mistakes made by countries that followed that path years and even decades ago. These mistakes result in huge amounts of money being allocated to the undue maintenance and repair of existing construction. In emerging countries, this deprives the construction market of urgently needed resources for new constructions.

Traditionally, durability and service life design were issues reserved to the owners (typically governmental agencies and private promoters). Today, as a result of commonly applied Design, Build and Operate contracts, the constructors are also involved in service life design and assessment.

The scientific community have been following and sometimes leading the concern on durability issues. In the last 30 years, considerable progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms of deterioration of reinforced concrete structures and, particularly in the last decade, in developing testing methods and quantitative tools intended to predict the potential service life of such structures.

The organizers believe that tackling the issues of service life design and assessment requires a sound understanding of the microstructure of concrete (chiefly of the continuous media, the hardened cement paste) and on the mechanisms of mass transport through the material. Hence, the title and content of the offered workshop, which will be focused on the main and most widespread cause of deterioration of reinforced concrete structures: steel corrosion.

The first half of the Workshop’s lectures covers the chemical and physical aspects of the microstructure of concrete and the fundamentals of the main mechanisms by which matter penetrates and moves through the intricate pore structure of the material.

The general principles of corrosion of steel embedded in concrete structures subjected to CO2 and chloride rich environments will be discussed as well as the necessary conditions for deterioration.

The current trends in standards bodies to move from prescriptive to performance specifications will be discussed. Since performance needs adequate testing (both in the laboratory and on site), the current standardized test methods for durability will be thoroughly described, indicating their strengths and weaknesses and providing guidance on how to adequately interpret their results. Moreover, the participants will have one day dedicated to performing such tests or observing their main steps.

Finally, the hot topic of service life prediction will be tackled, describing several available methods, discussing their accuracy and their sensitivity to input variables. In order to strengthen the understanding of selected methods, participants will work in groups on purposely designed case studies, under the assistance of the lecturers, with a general discussion on the results achieved by each group.

It is expected that, at the end of the workshop, participants will have a stronger background to face the challenges posed by service life design of new constructions and assessment of existing structures.

Target Audience:
- Professional staff of Design, Consulting, Construction and Operating companies
- Professional staff of Governmental bodies for infrastructure, energy and housing
- Professional staff of suppliers of Construction Elements and Materials
- Members of the Scientific and Academic community
- Private Consultants
- Professional staff of Private and Public testing laboratories
- Advanced graduate and postgraduate University students

Please note that these are approximative dates. It can also be in June.