CBI presents: Institute of Structural Concrete at RWTH Aachen University

After the brief introductions of the individual members, the Center Building and Infrastructure Engineering (CBI) would like to introduce the university institutes of the four initiators. The four founding institutes are part of the Faculty of Civil Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, which consists of a total of 23 professorships in the fields of civil engineering, environment, and infrastructure. Another important step in interdisciplinary research in the field of civil engineering was taken by the institutes for solid construction, building research, road construction, and steel construction with the foundation of the CBI as part of the Building Cluster on the RWTH Aachen Campus. In the CBI, you bundle your professional competencies and research infrastructure and thus enable members from industry to convert current trends into market-relevant technologies faster and more efficiently. The new presentation series “CBI presents” continues today with the: Institute of Structural Concrete (IMB).

The research of the Institute for Structural Concrete (IMB) under the direction of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Josef Hegger focuses on the load-bearing and deformation behavior as well as the structural design of reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete, and composite structures. In addition to the new and further development of building and composite materials, the focus is on integral building concepts and sustainable construction principles. Topics of both, classical basic research and application-oriented research, are dealt with equally. For this reason, close cooperation with those involved in the construction and use of future buildings is necessary.

The main focus of research activities (selection) at the IMB includes the use of reinforced and prestressed concrete in all types of structures (building construction, bridge construction and industrial construction), the answering of open questions regarding the load-bearing behavior of structural elements and, in particular, the reinforcement of existing structures. This includes the development of design and dimensioning rules for all kinds of solid construction elements, the sustainable design and construction of buildings, especially in the course of the ongoing digitalization. The experimental work is supported by numerical modeling on the macro- and meso-levels. For this purpose, powerful self-developed software systems for non-linear simulations are available. One focus of the IMB with numerous projects is the development and application of non-metallic reinforcement for new construction and reinforcement of concrete structures. The knowledge gained in these diverse fields is directly incorporated into current regulations, such as the Eurocode and guidelines of the German Committee for Reinforced Concrete as well as the Federal Highway Research Institute and the Federal Ministry of Transport through participation in technical-scientific committees.

In its present form, the IMB was created in 1971 by splitting the Chair of Structural Concrete and Structural Analysis into two separate institutes. After Prof. em. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h.c. Heinrich Trost, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Josef Hegger has held the chair and headed the institute since September 1993. Currently, 24 scientific staff, 18 non-scientific staff in administration and technology, 6 trainees, and about 30 student assistants are employed at the IMB. In the two experimental halls of the IMB, testing facilities and associated measuring technology for static and cyclic tensile, compression and bending tests on small bodies and component tests as well as a mechanical workshop for the development and manufacture of measuring and testing equipment are available.