Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) programme Civil Engineering at Univessity of Twente

The Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) programme Civil Engineering offers you a 2-year position combining post MSc education and a design project to be carried out at Rijkswaterstaat.

The educational programme, carried out at the University of Twente, will have an in-depth and broadening character with ample attention for professional development and will be partly tailored to the design project. In collaboration with Rijkwaterstaat you will work on high level, creative new designs for complex issues.

The project - Development of monitoring systems to prolong the life span of bridges

In the Netherlands, as well as in many other countries, the road network contains a large number of bridges, viaducts, and tunnels that were built in the 1960s and 1970s or even earlier. These objects were built with the construction and material knowledge of that time and calculated on the then-current design standards, traffic forecasts and vehicle load. Since the building of these objects traffic intensity has substantially increased. In addition, the (safety) requirements, both nationally and internationally were further tightened over the past few decades. Knowledge has also increased about how materials used (steel and concrete) will behave over time. Monitoring plays an increasing role in assessing the remaining technical lifetime of bridge and viaducts that have achieved their intended usage life. Monitoring could support the extension of the life span of bridges and viaducts by providing insights in the effects of traffic load on the behavior of the construction, or deterioration of the construction itself. By monitoring damage, it can be predicted how it will develop in the future and what this means for safety. The relation between the safety of a construction and data from a monitoring system, however, is still unclear.

The research question in this project is:
How can a monitoring system be used to guarantee the structural safety of bridges?

Deadline Application: 31-10-2017

Furher details:
Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) programme Civil Engineering at Univessity of Twente