The activities of the Materials for Civil Engineering group focus on the design and characterization of civil engineering materials and structures. The research is carried out with academic partners and also with many industrial partners in the building, cement and concrete sectors.
This group is an expert in the physicochemical characterization of materials (cement, mortar, concrete and their constituents) and in the study of the structural behaviour of constructions. The temporality of constructions is also studied through both the analysis of the durability of modern materials, and the conservation of historical heritage. Several studies related to the use of raw earth and bio-sourced materials (natural fibres, etc.), as well as self-healing concrete are underway in response to the need to reduce the environmental impact of modern structures.
The group has a mortar/concrete laboratory to characterize materials. This allows the manufacture and monitoring (rheology in the fresh state and mechanical properties in the hardened state over time, dimensional monitoring, etc.) of specimens and large structural elements. For small-scale fine analyses, it uses state-of-the-art analytical means dedicated to characterization.
New dimensioning methods are developed due to a specific structural testing platform (measurements of mechanical stress, deformation, etc.). These allow initial imperfections to be taken into account through new instability criteria or new reinforcement configurations, for example. This is to be able to respond to problems of fire resistance and assembly on site (a mixed steel-concrete beam provides fire resistance for up to 2 hours).
Internally, the group collaborates with the following teams: Surfaces and Interfaces; Chemical Reactivity of Materials; Electrochemistry of Materials Research, Micro and Nanosystems.
On the national and international scale, the group is a member of IREX and of RF2B. It takes part in the Scientific Work “Notre-Dame de Paris” (CNRS – French Ministry of Culture) and the InterReg programmes.
It collaborates with other universities and technical centres, including:
- Université Gustave Eiffel, Champ-sur-Marne
- Université de Strasbourg
and abroad :
- Institut Supérieur des Mines et Géologie de Boké (Guinea)
- Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique Ben Guerir (Marocco)
- Université of Balamand, (Lebanon)
- Université Abomey-Calavi (Benin)
- UQUAT, Canada
- Université de Liège, Belgium
- Université du Luxembourg, Luxembourg
- Centre Technique Industriel de la Construction Métallique (CTICM), Saint-Aubin – Saclay