Research

In this project, procedures for the development of digital twins for the implementation of efficient sustainability analyses will be developed and tested, taking into account the national requirements of the DACH countries. A specific implementation of digital twins and selected sustainability-related indicators for the evaluation and optimisation of the operation and dismantling of civil engineering structures with regard to a cycle-oriented resource management will be carried out. The focus is on decision support for the operators of engineering structures with regard to planning, construction, operation and dismantling. On the basis of open source developments, an implementation guide is also being created to enable the transfer and further development of the results. For the demonstration, digital twins of up to three engineering structures will be created, enriched with data and used for the calculation of relevant indicators for sustainability analysis. In addition, advice will be given on which data should be collected in the future and integrated into sustainability analyses so that data gaps can be closed and transparent decisions can be made.

The use of recycled building materials holds great potential for resource-conserving and thus sustainable construction in civil engineering. Particularly in the case of larger infrastructure structures, such as track-bound roadways (Wiener Linien network: 253 km of underground railways and 417 km of tramways; ÖBB: > 5,000 km of rail network), large volumes of potentially reusable "building materials" are produced. The aim is therefore to reuse and install the track support slabs to be replaced as recycled aggregates for the production of new support slabs as close as possible to the installation site. For this purpose, a number of steps have to be investigated, such as the removal, the control of the mechanical stock parameters, the preparation process including the washing operations, the maximum reuse of the prepared concrete recyclate, a low demand for additional sands, the use of low-emission cements and reinforcement materials in the context of an optimised structural component design and the optimisation of the stripping and installation periods.

SETO's digital solution will provide deeper insights into the different transport modes and their synchronicity and the safety assessment and lifetime evaluation of bridge systems. It will develop an "open gateway" software connection to the new/future transport modes (autonomous driving cars/buses, drones, ULV, etc.). For the safety and resilience of transport infrastructure The aim of this project is, among other things, to implement extended probability theory-based approaches in addition to the classical approaches to the lifetime evaluation of structures.