Course syllabus

Course-PM

BOM065 Materials performance lp1 HT19 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Contact details

Teachers/Assistants at Chalmers:

Building Technology

AB:   Arezou Babaahmadi     031 772 1161    arezou.babaahmadi@chalmers.se

EZ:    Emma Zhang                031 772 2336    emma.zhang@chalmers.se

GI:    Govindan Induchoodan 031 772 1964    govindan@chalmers.se

IS:     Ingemar Segerholm       031 772 2302    ingemar.segerholm@chalmers.se

TM:   Tommie Månsson         031 772 1976    tommie.mansson@chalmers.se

TL:    Tang Luping                 031 772 2305    tang.luping@chalmers.se (Examiner)

YG:   Yutaka Goto                 031 772 1462    yutaka@chalmers.se

Structural Engineering

RJ:    Robert Jockwer             031 772 6583    robert.jockwer@chalmers.se

Invited experts from CBI (Swedish Cement and Concrete Research Institute):

UM: Urs Mueller                                             urs.mueller@ri.se

Course purpose

The aim of this course is to provide more intensified scientific based knowledge for students to understand commonly used construction materials, their structures, properties and behaviours under different conditions, so as to be able to critically evaluate materials and apply the knowledge in a performance-based design of buildings and civil engineering constructions.

Course literature

TimeEdit

Schedule

“Construction Materials – Their nature and behaviour”, 5th edition by Marios Soutsos and Peter Domone, CRC Press, 2018.

Separate hand-outs, papers and reports.

Course design

The course by means of lectures, laboratory exercises, modelling exercises and project works, will deal with the following contents:

• Generic aspects of construction materials regarding to
  • environmental impact,
  • energy consumption, and
• Testing and modelling the performance of materials in general (methodology and precision).
• Cementitious materials:
  • their raw materials, mix proportioning, production, structures,
  • fresh and hardened properties,
  • long-term behaviours and influencing factors, and
  • service life design of concrete structures.
• Metallic materials:
  • their structures,
  • behaviours under load (fatigue, brittle fracture), and
  • corrosion and protection.
• Timber:
  • its porous and anisotropic structures,
  • long-term behaviours and influencing factors.
• Other modern materials for façade, repair, strengthening, insulation, etc.
  • fibre reinforced polymer composites,
  • fibre reinforced cement and concrete, and
  • bituminous materials

• Non-destructive tests (NDT) for assessment of construction materials

Teaching and learning activities

Class activities: To promote deep learning the class activities will include lectures, mini-seminars and group discussions. Students need to pre-read the contents in order to prepare their presentations and discussions.

Laboratory activities: Three laboratory exercises are designed to give students a practical insight into materials properties, test methods and measurement uncertainty.

Tasks and exercises: Tasks are designed to give students opportunities for group work and presentation. Exercises are given to students for individually solving the questions.

Study trips: These activities are designed to give students the real pictures of materials and structures. Two study trips are arranged in combination with the parallel course “Structural systems” (VBB122).

Project work: The project work is designed to assess students’ ability in applying the learning outcomes to solve “open questions”. It is a group work. Students should choose and specify suitable structural materials for the important components in specified structures, considering functionality, environmental impact and durability. The work will be reported/disputed in the end of the course.

Changes made since the last occasion

Laboratory exercises become part of examination by giving maximum 4 points per each excercise. 

Learning objectives and syllabus

After the course the students will be able to:

• describe structures and properties of commonly used construction materials in both micro and macro scales;
• explain materials behaviour under environmental and mechanical loads;
• explain usual deterioration of a given material under the given conditions;
• apply certain models for describing materials behaviour and their deterioration;
• critically evaluate a material or a combination of materials for its functional properties, durability and impact to a sustainable development; and
• apply the achieved knowledge in a performance-based design of buildings and civil engineering constructions.