Our next PhDTalks Seminar will be held on Tuesday 12^th december in Fassò Room (Building 4A), from 5:15 pm to 6:30 pm CET. 

PhDTalks is a series of seminars and discussions between PhD students. The events are aimed at providing a place to network and get in contact with many of the projects developed in our department. 

Speaker Rammin Yarmohammadian will talk about “Severe spalling in heated concrete”. 

At the end of each event a small refreshment funded by the department will be available. 

You can watch the event online by clicking here.

Abstract 

There is no doubt that concrete will continue to be utilized as a construction material much into the future as it is now the most often used building material. Thanks to its low conductivity, it is known to exhibit good behaviour in fire. However, the fact that concrete is prone to the spalling phenomenon when exposed to fire poses a significant obstacle to its widespread utilization. Explosive spalling keeps being one of the main open issues concerning the fire safety of concrete structures. Though it is recognized that cracks in the exposed cover can be triggered by the combined effect of thermal stress and pore pressure, the energy source and the mechanism behind the violent projection of fragments are not yet fully understood. in the scope of this presentation, the latest experimental and numerical results in understanding such complex behavior are presented.

Speaker’s bio

Ramin Yarmohammadian is currently a PhD student of the DICA 36th cycle, titled “Severe spalling in concrete exposed to fire”. He is interested in both experimental and numerical analysis of fire-induced spalling and fracture behaviour of concrete material. As a graduate student, he investigated spalling using Neutron radiography (NR) techniques to verify the role of moisture in such an event which was also confirmed by the thermo-hygro-mechanical model.   In his PhD research, new experimental tests were designed not only to rank different concrete mixes (screening tests) but also to shed light on the real mechanism engaged in this event. He also investigated the fracture behaviour of concrete using a new direct tensile test setup (3ACTION) which can control crack opening not to have secondary bending.    In his free time, he likes to travel and spend time with friends and family.