We are glad to announce that our next PhDTalks Seminar will be held on Tuesday 2^nd May in Room 2.1.3 (Building 2), 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 Laura Corti will talk about “Timber for Hybrid Structures: an innovative perspective from numerical modeling to environmental assessment”. 

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: 

In the current context of climate change, structural engineers struggle every day with an alarming fact: building sector contributes to 30% of global greenhouse emissions. One of the developing topic of research is characterised by bio-based structural materials, in particular timber and engineered wood. Hybridisation of timber with other materials provides many advantages, as better performances e.g. in case of seismic loads, minor construction times and lower environmental impact. The topic of this talk focuses of some innovative research aspects of timber-hybrid structures, first of all considering some numerical modeling benchmark analyses with issues specifically linked with timber orthotropy and contacts among other materials and secondly a comparative Life Cycle Assessment analysis where two equivalent buildings are compared and the role of connectors is highlighted. The perspective of this presentation suggests an overview of the interdisciplinarity of this topic, where traditional structural problems are tackled together with sustainability issues.

Speaker’s bio:

Laura graduated with a Master in Civil Engineering for Risk Mitigation (CERM) in Politecnico di Milano in 2021. She is currently enrolled in the second year of the PhD programme in Structural, Seismic, and Environmental Engineering (XXXVII cycle) at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Politecnico di Milano. She is involved in the modeling, testing and development of timber-concrete hybrid composites, with a special focus on sustainability. In the free time Laura enjoys going to the theater, hiking and swimming.