TY - JOUR A1 - Marinković, Marko A1 - Butenweg, Christoph ED - Ford, Michael C. T1 - Experimental testing of decoupled masonry infills with steel anchors for out-of-plane support under combined in-plane and out-of-plane seismic loading JF - Construction and Building Materials N2 - Because of simple construction process, high energy efficiency, significant fire resistance and excellent sound isolation, masonry infilled reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures are very popular in most of the countries in the world, as well as in seismic active areas. However, many RC frame structures with masonry infills were seriously damaged during earthquake events, as the traditional infills are generally constructed with direct contact to the RC frame which brings undesirable infill/frame interaction. This interaction leads to the activation of the equivalent diagonal strut in the infill panel, due to the RC frame deformation, and combined with seismically induced loads perpendicular to the infill panel often causes total collapses of the masonry infills and heavy damages to the RC frames. This fact was the motivation for developing different approaches for improving the behaviour of masonry infills, where infill isolation (decoupling) from the frame has been more intensively studied in the last decade. In-plane isolation of the infill wall reduces infill activation, but causes the need for additional measures to restrain out-of-plane movements. This can be provided by installing steel anchors, as proposed by some researchers. Within the framework of European research project INSYSME (Innovative Systems for Earthquake Resistant Masonry Enclosures in Reinforced Concrete Buildings) the system based on a use of elastomers for in-plane decoupling and steel anchors for out-of-plane restrain was tested. This constructive solution was tested and deeply investigated during the experimental campaign where traditional and decoupled masonry infilled RC frames with anchors were subjected to separate and combined in-plane ‬and out-of-plane loading. Based on a detailed evaluation and comparison of the test results, the performance and effectiveness of the developed system are illustrated. KW - Masonry infill KW - Reinforced concrete frame KW - Earthquake KW - INSYSME KW - Decoupling Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.126041 SN - 1879-0526 SN - 0950-0618 VL - 318 IS - 1 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rossi, Leonardo A1 - Winands, Mark H. M. A1 - Butenweg, Christoph ED - Zhang, Jessica T1 - Monte Carlo Tree Search as an intelligent search tool in structural design problems JF - Engineering with Computers : An International Journal for Simulation-Based Engineering N2 - Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) is a search technique that in the last decade emerged as a major breakthrough for Artificial Intelligence applications regarding board- and video-games. In 2016, AlphaGo, an MCTS-based software agent, outperformed the human world champion of the board game Go. This game was for long considered almost infeasible for machines, due to its immense search space and the need for a long-term strategy. Since this historical success, MCTS is considered as an effective new approach for many other scientific and technical problems. Interestingly, civil structural engineering, as a discipline, offers many tasks whose solution may benefit from intelligent search and in particular from adopting MCTS as a search tool. In this work, we show how MCTS can be adapted to search for suitable solutions of a structural engineering design problem. The problem consists of choosing the load-bearing elements in a reference reinforced concrete structure, so to achieve a set of specific dynamic characteristics. In the paper, we report the results obtained by applying both a plain and a hybrid version of single-agent MCTS. The hybrid approach consists of an integration of both MCTS and classic Genetic Algorithm (GA), the latter also serving as a term of comparison for the results. The study’s outcomes may open new perspectives for the adoption of MCTS as a design tool for civil engineers. KW - Monte Carlo Tree Search KW - Structural design KW - Artificial intelligence KW - Civil engineering KW - Genetic algorithm Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00366-021-01338-2 SN - 1435-5663 SN - 0177-0667 VL - 38 IS - 4 SP - 3219 EP - 3236 PB - Springer Nature CY - Cham ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Butenweg, Christoph A1 - Bursi, Oreste S. A1 - Paolacci, Fabrizio A1 - Marinković, Marko A1 - Lanese, Igor A1 - Nardin, Chiara A1 - Quinci, Gianluca ED - Yang, J. T1 - Seismic performance of an industrial multi-storey frame structure with process equipment subjected to shake table testing JF - Engineering Structures N2 - Past earthquakes demonstrated the high vulnerability of industrial facilities equipped with complex process technologies leading to serious damage of process equipment and multiple and simultaneous release of hazardous substances. Nonetheless, current standards for seismic design of industrial facilities are considered inadequate to guarantee proper safety conditions against exceptional events entailing loss of containment and related consequences. On these premises, the SPIF project -Seismic Performance of Multi-Component Systems in Special Risk Industrial Facilities- was proposed within the framework of the European H2020 SERA funding scheme. In detail, the objective of the SPIF project is the investigation of the seismic behaviour of a representative industrial multi-storey frame structure equipped with complex process components by means of shaking table tests. Along this main vein and in a performance-based design perspective, the issues investigated in depth are the interaction between a primary moment resisting frame (MRF) steel structure and secondary process components that influence the performance of the whole system; and a proper check of floor spectra predictions. The evaluation of experimental data clearly shows a favourable performance of the MRF structure, some weaknesses of local details due to the interaction between floor crossbeams and process components and, finally, the overconservatism of current design standards w.r.t. floor spectra predictions. KW - Multi-storey KW - Frame structure KW - Earthquake KW - Tank KW - Piping Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2021.112681 SN - 0141-0296 VL - 243 IS - 15 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Butenweg, Christoph ED - Vacareanu, Radu ED - Ionescu, Constantin T1 - Seismic design and evaluation of industrial facilities T2 - The Third European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology N2 - Industrial facilities must be thoroughly designed to withstand seismic actions as they exhibit an increased loss potential due to the possibly wideranging damage consequences and the valuable process engineering equipment. Past earthquakes showed the social and political consequences of seismic damage to industrial facilities and sensitized the population and politicians worldwide for the possible hazard emanating from industrial facilities. However, a holistic approach for the seismic design of industrial facilities can presently neither be found in national nor in international standards. The introduction of EN 1998-4 of the new generation of Eurocode 8 will improve the normative situation with specific seismic design rules for silos, tanks and pipelines and secondary process components. The article presents essential aspects of the seismic design of industrial facilities based on the new generation of Eurocode 8 using the example of tank structures and secondary process components. The interaction effects of the process components with the primary structure are illustrated by means of the experimental results of a shaking table test of a three story moment resisting steel frame with different process components. Finally, an integrated approach of digital plant models based on building information modelling (BIM) and structural health monitoring (SHM) is presented, which provides not only a reliable decision-making basis for operation, maintenance and repair but also an excellent tool for rapid assessment of seismic damage. KW - Industrial facilities KW - Seismic design KW - Tanks KW - EN 1998-4 KW - Structural health monitoring Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-3-031-15103-3 SN - 978-3-031-15106-4 SN - 978-3-031-15104-0 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15104-0 SN - 2524-342X SN - 2524-3438 N1 - 3ECEES - Third European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, September 4 – September 9, 2022, Bucharest SP - 449 EP - 464 PB - Springer CY - Cham ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Gkatzogias, Konstantinos A1 - Veljkoviv, Ana A1 - Pohoryles, Daniel A. A1 - Tsionis, Georgios A1 - Bournas, Dionysios A. A1 - Crowley, Helen A1 - Norlén, Hedvig A1 - Butenweg, Christoph A1 - Gervasio, Helena A1 - Manfredi, Vincenzo A1 - Masi, Angelo A1 - Zaharieva, Roumiana ED - Gkatzogias, Konstantinos ED - Tsionis, Georgios T1 - Policy practice and regional impact assessment for building renovation T2 - REEBUILD Integrated Techniques for the Seismic Strengthening & Energy Efficiency of Existing Buildings N2 - The work presented in this report provides scientific support to building renovation policies in the EU by promoting a holistic point of view on the topic. Integrated renovation can be seen as a nexus between European policies on disaster resilience, energy efficiency and circularity in the building sector. An overview of policy measures for the seismic and energy upgrading of buildings across EU Member States identified only a few available measures for combined upgrading. Regulatory framework, financial instruments and digital tools similar to those for energy renovation, together with awareness and training may promote integrated renovation. A framework for regional prioritisation of building renovation was put forward, considering seismic risk, energy efficiency, and socioeconomic vulnerability independently and in an integrated way. Results indicate that prioritisation of building renovation is a multidimensional problem. Depending on priorities, different integrated indicators should be used to inform policies and accomplish the highest relative or most spread impact across different sectors. The framework was further extended to assess the impact of renovation scenarios across the EU with a focus on priority regions. Integrated renovation can provide a risk-proofed, sustainable, and inclusive built environment, presenting an economic benefit in the order of magnitude of the highest benefit among the separate interventions. Furthermore, it presents the unique capability of reducing fatalities and energy consumption at the same time and, depending on the scenario, to a greater extent. Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-92-76-60454-9 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2760/883122 SN - 1831-9424 SP - 1 EP - 68 PB - Publications Office of the European Union CY - Luxembourg ER - TY - GEN A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Bernhard, Sebastian A1 - Langolf, Jessica A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen T1 - Managing change and acceptance of digitalization strategies - Implementing the vision of „Internet of Production“ (IoP) in existing corporate structures T2 - Textile Impulse für die Zukunft: Aachen-Dresden-Denkendorf International Textile Conference 2022 N2 - The vision of the Internet of Production is to enable a new level of crossdomain collaboration by providing semantically adequate and context-aware data from production, development & usage in real-time. Y1 - 2022 N1 - Textile Impulse für die Zukunft: Aachen-Dresden-Denkendorf International Textile Conference 2022 : 1. – 2. Dezember 2022, Eurogress Aachen SP - 153 EP - 153 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schüller-Ruhl, Aaron A1 - Dinstühler, Leonard A1 - Senger, Thorsten A1 - Bergfeld, Stefan A1 - Ingenhag, Christian A1 - Fleischhaker, Robert ED - Mackenzie, Jacob T1 - Direct fabrication of arbitrary phase masks in optical glass via ultra-short pulsed laser writing of refractive index modifications JF - Applied Physics B N2 - We study the possibility to fabricate an arbitrary phase mask in a one-step laser-writing process inside the volume of an optical glass substrate. We derive the phase mask from a Gerchberg–Saxton-type algorithm as an array and create each individual phase shift using a refractive index modification of variable axial length. We realize the variable axial length by superimposing refractive index modifications induced by an ultra-short pulsed laser at different focusing depth. Each single modification is created by applying 1000 pulses with 15 μJ pulse energy at 100 kHz to a fixed spot of 25 μm diameter and the focus is then shifted axially in steps of 10 μm. With several proof-of-principle examples, we show the feasibility of our method. In particular, we identify the induced refractive index change to about a value of Δn=1.5⋅10−3. We also determine our current limitations by calculating the overlap in the form of a scalar product and we discuss possible future improvements. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-022-07928-2 SN - 1432-0649 (Online) SN - 0946-2171 (Print) N1 - Corresponding author: Robert Fleischhaker VL - 128 IS - Article number: 208 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Springer CY - Berlin ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Sharma, Mamta Rameshwarlal A1 - Bleck, Wolfgang A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen ED - Farn, C. K. T1 - Innovation through Diversity - Development of a Diversity and Innovation management concept T2 - International Conference on Innovation and Management : IAM23017S : Date: July 4-7, 2017, Osaka, Japan N2 - Acknowledging that a diverse workforce could be a potential source of innovation, the current research deals with the fine details of why diversity management is central to achieving innovation in heterogeneous research groups and how this could be effectively realized in an organization. The types of heterogeneities addressed mainly include gender, qualification, academic discipline and intercultural perspectives. The type of organization being dealt with in this work is a complex association of research institutes at a technical university in Germany (RWTH Aachen University), namely a 'Cluster of Excellence', whereby several institutes of the university work collaboratively in different sub-projects. The 'Cluster of Excellence' is a part of the 'Excellence Initiative' of the German federal and state governments German Research Foundation (DFG) and German Council of Science and Humanities, with the ultimate aim of promoting cutting-edge research. To support interdisciplinary collaboration and thus the performance of the cluster, the development of a diversity and innovation management concept is presently in the conceptual phase and will be described in the frame of this paper. The 3-S-Diversity Model, composed of the three elements: skills, structure and strategy, serves as a basis for the development of the concept. The proposed concept consists of six phases; the first two phases lay the ground work by developing an understanding of the status quo on the forms of diversity in the Cluster of Excellence, the type of organizational structure of the member institutes and the varieties of specialist work cultures of the same. The third and the fourth phases build up on this foundation by means of qualitative and quantitative studies. While the third phase deals with the sensitization of the management level to the close connection between diversity and innovation; the need to manage them thereafter and find tailor-made methods of doing so, the fourth phase shall mainly focus on the mindset of the employees in this regard. The fifth phase shall consolidate the learnings and the ideas developed in the course of the first four phases into an implementable strategy. The ultimate phase shall be the implementation of this concept in the Cluster. The first three phases have been accomplished successfully and the preliminary results are already available. Y1 - 2017 SN - 2218-6387 SP - Panel C PB - Kuang Hui Chiu CY - Osaka ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Striebing, Clemens A1 - Müller, Jörg A1 - Schraudner, Martina A1 - Gewinner, Irina Valerie A1 - Guerrero Morales, Patricia A1 - Hochfeld, Katharina A1 - Hoffman, Shekinah A1 - Kmec, Julie A. A1 - Nguyen, Huu Minh A1 - Schneider, Jannick A1 - Sheridan, Jennifer A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Trimble O'Connor, Lindsey A1 - Vandevelde-Rougale, Agnès T1 - Promoting diversity and combatting discrimination in research organizations: a practitioner’s guide T2 - Diversity and discrimination in research organizations N2 - The essay is addressed to practitioners in research management and from academic leadership. It describes which measures can contribute to creating an inclusive climate for research teams and preventing and effectively dealing with discrimination. The practical recommendations consider the policy and organizational levels, as well as the individual perspective of research managers. Following a series of basic recommendations, six lessons learned are formulated, derived from the contributions to the edited collection on “Diversity and Discrimination in Research Organizations.” KW - Inclusive work climate KW - lessons learned KW - policy recommendations KW - recommendations for actions KW - bullying Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-1-80117-959-1 (Print) SN - 978-1-80117-956-0 (Online) U6 - https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-956-020221012 SP - 421 EP - 442 PB - Emerald Publishing Limited CY - Bingley ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen T1 - Perceiving diversity : an explorative approach in a complex research organization. T2 - Diversity and discrimination in research organizations N2 - Diversity management is seen as a decisive factor for ensuring the development of socially responsible innovations (Beacham and Shambaugh, 2011; Sonntag, 2014; López, 2015; Uebernickel et al., 2015). However, many diversity management approaches fail due to a one-sided consideration of diversity (Thomas and Ely, 2019) and a lacking linkage between the prevailing organizational culture and the perception of diversity in the respective organization. Reflecting the importance of diverse perspectives, research institutions have a special responsibility to actively deal with diversity, as they are publicly funded institutions that drive socially relevant development and educate future generations of developers, leaders and decision-makers. Nevertheless, only a few studies have so far dealt with the influence of the special framework conditions of the science system on diversity management. Focusing on the interdependency of the organizational culture and diversity management especially in a university research environment, this chapter aims in a first step to provide a theoretical perspective on the framework conditions of a complex research organization in Germany in order to understand the system-specific factors influencing diversity management. In a second step, an exploratory cluster analysis is presented, investigating the perception of diversity and possible influencing factors moderating this perception in a scientific organization. Combining both steps, the results show specific mechanisms and structures of the university research environment that have an impact on diversity management and rigidify structural barriers preventing an increase of diversity. The quantitative study also points out that the management level takes on a special role model function in the scientific system and thus has an influence on the perception of diversity. Consequently, when developing diversity management approaches in research organizations, it is necessary to consider the top-down direction of action, the special nature of organizational structures in the university research environment as well as the special role of the professorial level as role model for the scientific staff. KW - Diversity management KW - Organizational culture KW - Change management KW - Psychological concepts KW - Perception Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-1-80117-959-1 (Print) SN - 978-1-80117-956-0 (Online) U6 - https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-956-020221010 SP - 365 EP - 392 PB - Emerald Publishing Limited CY - Bingley ER -