In August of 2021, I was fortunate to start my secondment with our industrial partner in Ljubljana. Here at Chair of Mechanics, UL FGG, we have a strong industrial cooperation with the building materials research institute Igmat d.d. and I had the privilege to learn a lot through experimentation at their test facilities under the supervision of Asist. Prof. Gregor Trtnik. The emphasis was laid on testing of microfibers reinforced concrete prepared from injection moulding and developing effective constitutive models for the same. Since this kind of material is relatively new, knowledge of properties of such material is crucial and a special attention must be paid to the efficiency of this material, i.e., its ability to withstand relatively large deformations.

Several tests were performed to determine the maximum load bearing capacity and post-critical energy on circular, prismatic and square specimens according to different standards (ASTM, EU standards). Furthermore, for the development of effective constitutive models for the microfibers reinforced concrete, uniaxial compressive and three-point bending tests were performed. The results from the tests will assist in developing constitutive models for the material and addressing the problem of strain softening and strain localization in numerical simulations. The secondment has been a great learning experience and has been instrumental in gaining exposure into industrial challenges and development of computational models.

Contributed by Sudhanva Kusuma Chandrashekhara (ESR 14)