Petr Havlásek’s story

Petr Havlásek’s story

Ing. Petr Havlásek, Ph.D.

Department of Mechanics, Researcher

The fund resources were used within activity: Support for short-term international cooperation between a young researcher at the Faculty of Civil Engineering CTU in Prague and prestigious foreign experts

How much money from the Initiation Fund did you get and what did you use it for?

I got CZK 48 thousand from the Initiation and the money was used to organize two visits of Dr. Peter Grassl from the School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, at the Faculty in 2019.

 What does Dr. Grassl deal with?

His research is focused on the understanding, prediction and improvement of mechanical properties of building materials, including concrete, especially via a combination of experiments with the analysis of physical processes at several levels. He is mainly interested in the appearance and interaction of cracks with the transport of liquids and heat and in the prediction of the durability of materials. His other areas of interest include the behaviour of structures and materials exposed to impact loads.

 Why did you strive for his invitation in particular?

I was engaged at the University of Glasgow for 3 months where I worked in cooperation with Dr. Grassl and the product was a professional article. The cooperation was very beneficial. Besides, Dr. Grassl in the author of the CDPM material model for the description of nonlinear behaviour of concrete, which I am currently using in my work on CSF and TA CR research projects.

What joint project did you address?

The aim of his visit was to restore and extend cooperation in the field of the analysis of the appearance and development of cracks in concrete due to the volume changes in reinforcement. Also, there is a potential for cooperation on the improvement of the CDPM2 model, which is now being used at the Faculty to analyse precast columns exposed to cyclic loading.

 Did you manage to organize a lecture at the Faculty as well?

Yes, the lecture called Virtual Laboratory for Reinforced Concrete was held during his first visit. The abstract is available HERE.

In which way was Dr. Peter Grassl’s visit important for you?

He is a leading foreign expert who uses modern and advanced computer modelling techniques to understand and describe the behaviour of the basic mechanisms in building materials and members. According to the SCOPUS database, he is the author of 61 publications and with 1290 citations, his current H-index is 17. The renewed cooperation with Peter Grassl is extremely beneficial for my further research; among others, because it can be positively evaluated while assessing project proposals.

Ing. Petr Havlásek, Ph.D.

Profesor Dr. Peter Grassl ze School of Engineering, University of Glasgow

Responsible: prof. Dr. Ing. Bořek Patzák