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Civil Engineering will be well represented at RILEM in the Netherlands
Author: Department of Civil Engineering
Published: 30/07/2018

Wibke de Villiers, Mohamad Pourbehi, and Dr Stephan Zeranka (who obtained his PhD qualification during the December 2017 graduation ceremony) were recently awarded PhD grants to participate in the 72nd RILEM annual week in Delft, the Netherlands, from 26 – 29 August 2018.  RILEM (Réunion Internationale des Laboratoires et Experts des Matériaux) offers unique opportunities to young researchers below the age of 35 from Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, Asia and regional groups in Latin America and Russia, to attend its annual week.

The award-winning papers submitted by Stephan, Mohamad and Wibke (in collaboration with their respective supervisors) are entitled: 

  • Empirical and numerical modelling of the direct shear behaviour of steel fibre-reinforced concrete utilising composite and single fibre transverse pull-out data, by Stephan Zeranka and Prof GPAG van Zijl.
  • Seismic analysis of concrete dams affected by Alkali silica Reaction considering fluid-structure interaction, by Mohamed Pourbehi, Prof GPAG van Zijl and Dr JAvB Strasheim.
  • Numerical modelling of alternative masonry units, by Wibke de Villiers and Prof WP Boshoff.

RILEM will provide accommodation, waive the registration fees and also provide a lump sum of approximately R23,000 to each of the winners to cover their travel costs and living expenses in order to participate in RILEM.

In combination with the RILEM-week, the SLD4 conference and CONMOD2018 symposium have been organised:  SLD4 is the 4th International Conference on service life design for infrastructures, and CONMOD2018 is a symposium dealing with all aspects concerning the modelling of concrete at various scales.

Stellenbosch University received three RILEM awards, Cape Town University received two RILEM awards, and The University of the Witwatersrand received two awards. 

Photo (from left to right):  Mohamad Pourbehi,  Wibke de Villiers, and Dr Stephan Zeranka