Research

Framework for smart condition reassessment of Reclaimed Timber to eXtend the service life of long-lived wood products using non-destructive testing and automated data postprocessing (Ti-ReX)

Project Code: 101102316

Budget: 1369K € (300K €)

Financing: ForestValue2 Joint Call 2023

Project Coordinator: Katarzyna OSTAPSKA, SINTEF, Norway

Contact person: Dr Andrea LUCHERINI

Partners: ZAG, SINTEF, Technical University of Madrid, Warsaw University of Technology, Aalto University, Vidzemes University of Applied Sciences, Rambøll Norge AS, Trondheim Kommune

Duration: 3 years (15 Apr 2024 - 14 Apr 2027)

The main objective of this project is to develop feasible procedures for assessing and documenting the reclaimed timber's condition that allows for its reuse per the current European design standards, enabling a circular economy transition within the timber construction industry. The project will expand the knowledge within the condition assessment of reclaimed timber using an optimal combination of several selected nondestructive testing techniques and automated timber customised data processing and visualisation.

ARC (Accelerating Rate Calorimeter) 

Budget: 155K € (52.7K €)

Financing: ARIS (Paket 22)

Contact person: Dr Ulises ROJAS-ALVA

Partners: Kemijski Inštitut 

The Acceleratory Rate Calorimetry (ARC EVx) from Thermal Hazard Technology. It was acquired the ARC in consortium with the L18 Laboratory for Modern Battery Systems from National Institute of Chemistry. The ARC EVx brings new opportunities to carry out our research on the safety and performance of battery cells. We can now perform thermal degradation studies under various conditions to determine the onset of thermal runaway and the energy released during the phenomenon. It also allows us to conduct abuse testing, performance testing and gas collection.

FireSafePV materials

Budget: 11K € (5K €)

Financing: SFPE Student Research Grant

Partners: ZAG

Contact person: Nik Rus

This initiative will increase the already rising rate of new PV installations. However, putting a PV system on the roof has been shown to increase the extent of damage in case of a re,2 both because it can be the source of a re (including the DC and AC parts of the installation) and because the consequences of a roof re increase. Current estimates show that the annual expected number of res related to PV systems is 29 res/GW of the installed power.3 Many causes (in cases where the PV systems were the source of re) were related to the processes of installation and maintenance of the PV installation.

Assessing and improving the fire performance of building envelope systems.

Project Code:  L2-50046

Budget: 400K € (300K €)

Financing: ARRS (national funding)

Project Coordinator: Prof Grunde JOMAAS

Contact person: Prof Grunde JOMAAS

Partners: Rockwool, ZAG

Duration: 3 years (1 Oct 2023 - 30 Sep 2026)

The most common type of façades used in new construction and renovation projects are ETICS (External Thermal Insulation Composite System, 65%), cavity walls (19%) and ventilated facades (12%). ETICS systems are also the predominant type of façades installed in Slovenia for renovation of existing buildings and for new constructions. Considering the significant market of ETICS systems throughout Europe, along with the fire risk associated with façade systems, it is of great priority for the society and research community to increase the understanding of the fire behaviour of ETICS. The project will carry out an extensive experimental study that combines large-scale and mid-scale experiments to identify the sensitivity to failure of ETICS systems in a fire scenario.

Innovative engineered wood products made from thermo-hydro-mechanical densified wood with enhanced physical, mechanical and fire performance (WoDeFi)

Project Code: J4-50132

Budget: 300K €

Financing: ARIS

Project Coordinator: InnoRenew CoE (Slovenia)

Contact person: Dr. Ulises ROJAS-ALVA

Partners: ZAG, InnoRenew CoE

Duration: 3 years (1 Oct 2023 - 30 Sep 2026)

The project will be focused on developing a Thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) densification process in combination with other suitable wood modification treatments in order to add value to low quality wood species that traditionally weren’t use in construction. Then the optimized wood modification procedure will be applied into engineered timber products (EWPs) with construction element size to verify its improvement of mechanical properties and performance under fire.

Automatic IR radiant panels (ARRS)

Contact person: Dr Andrea Lucherini

Duration: 2 years (1 Oct 2022- 30 Sep 2024)

Within this research project, a bench-scale experimental apparatus for fire testing using high-performance radiant panels is designed and assembled following the state-of-the-art. The system can be combined with other experimental equipment to examine many aspects related to the thermal and mechanical behaviour of novel sustainable construction materials and systems exposed to fire.

Energy Independent and Efficient Deployable Military Camps (INDY): 

Project Code: 101103388

Budget: 14.4M € (€110K €)

Financing: European Defence Fund (EDF), 2021-ENERENV-D

Project Coordinator:  Friderik Knez

Contact person: Dr. Ulises ROJAS-ALVA

Partners: TECES (ZAG is a subcontractor), AVL List GmbH, CAFA TECH OU, CNV Consulting, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives, Equipos Móviles de Campaña ARPA SAU, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Indra

Duration: 2 years (1 Dec 2022 - 30 Nov 2024)

With the selected proposals, the EDF will support high-end defence capability projects such as the next generation of aircraft fighters, tanks and ships, as well as critical defence technologies such as military cloud, AI, semiconductors, space, cyber or medical counter- measures. It will also spearhead disruptive technologies, notably in quantum technologies and new materials and tap into promising SMEs and start-ups.

Exploration Fire Safety (ExFires)

Project Code:  4000139129/22/NL/PA/pt

Budget: 20K € (20K €)

Financing: ESA- EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY

Project Coordinator: Prof Grunde JOMAAS

Contact person: Dr Ulises ROJAS-ALVA

Partners: ZARM (Centre of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity), University College London, UPMC (Universite Pierre et Marie Curie), JRC (Joint Research Centre)

Duration: 4 years (1 Jan 2022 - 1 Oct 2024)

Abstract: The Topical Team “Exploration Fire Safety (ExFireS)” aims to enhance fire safety in space vehicles and infrastructure. The focus of the team is on the development of material flammability experiments in microgravity that will serve as validation experiments for results from other microgravity facilities and for model development.