News 2024
BildUniversity Teachers' Days for Timber Structures at TH Augsburg

On 19 and 20 September 2024, after a long interruption, the tradition of this special event organised by Informationsdienst Holz for university lecturers was continued. 55 professors from engineering universities in Germany and two colleagues from Austria and Switzerland accepted the invitation to Augsburg University of Applied Sciences. The initiative for the resumption of the University Teachers' Days goes back to Prof Dietsch, who has been a board member of the Informationsverein Holz for two years.

Read more here.
BildINTER Meeting 2024 - Padua, Italy

From 25-29 August, the 11th meeting of the International Network on Timber Engineering Research (INTER 2024), chaired by Prof. Dietsch, took place at Università degli Studi di Padova. Over the course of four enriching days, 75 dedicated scientists from 18 countries and 4 continents came together to present, analyse and discuss 24 high-quality papers.

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BildVisit from State Secretary Lindlohr

On 29 July 2024, Andrea Lindlohr (MdL), State Secretary in the Ministry for Regional Development and Housing, visited the Research Centre for Steel, Timber and Masonry. She was accompanied by the Mayor of Karlsruhe, Dr. Frank Mentrup and Karlsruhe's Member of Parliament, Alexander Salomon. 

Read more here.
BildPrize of the "Freunde der VA" for Alexander Weese

We are pleased to announce that our colleague Alexander Weese has been awarded the "Freunde der Versuchsanstalt für Stahl, Holz und Steine e.V." 2024 sponsorship prize for his master's thesis entitled "Extension of Beam-on-Foundation models for timber connections subjected to earthquake loading". The association promotes science and research at the KIT Research Centre for Steel, Timber and Masonry. This award recognises Mr Weese's work in the field of FE modelling of dowel-type fasteners.

Pictures of the event
bildKarlsruher Tage 2024

Under the motto "Timber Structures - Research for Practice", we would like to cultivate the traditional and intensive exchange between research and practice with you. On October 10 and 11, 2024, you can expect a diverse spectrum of the latest developments and research.

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bildTeaching award for Michael Steilner

Congratulations to Michael Steilner! Michael Steilner was awarded the NwT 2023 teaching prize for his course "Building Construction - Excercise". The award ceremony took place on June 10 as part of the NwT annual celebration. In their assessment, the students emphasized the practical and well-explained content and Michael Steilner's dedicated teaching style. The additional course hours offered for NwT students were particularly impressive.

Bericht (PDF)
bildHabilitation of Dr. Carmen Sandhaas

Congratulations to Carmen Sandhaas on her successful Habilitation! Carmen Sandhaas' work, entitled "Timber fasteners - a study on input parameters for the design of timber joints", offers an in-depth analysis of all relevant strength parameters of screws and nails along with their potential for standardization.

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bildDoctorate of Simon Aurand

Congratulations to Simon Aurand on Successfully Defending his Doctoral Thesis! Entitled "A contribution to friction in timber connections", Simon Aurand demonstrates how surface modification of steel or timber members significantly enhances load-carrying capacities of connections, especially with inclined screws.

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bildStudent's excursion 2024

Good times with our Students: Excursion 2024. This year, we had the privilege of organizing a four day excursion in the Structural Engineering Master's program at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Click here for the excursion report.

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bildNeuland Innovation Award for HoStaBau

We feel honored and grateful that our innovative hybrid timber-steel beams have been recognized as one of the awardees of this year's KIT Innovation Prize, presented at the NEULAND Innovation Competition. The innovation is described here: Hybrid Timber Structures

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preisSponsorship award

The Association of Friends of the Research Centre for Steel, Timber and Masonry awards a prize for the best master's thesis in recognition of excellent scientific achievements. A prize of EUR 1,000 is awarded for a thesis in the field of steel structures and EUR 1,000 for timber structures.

Informationen
bildCompletion of HoStaBau project

Modern adhesive technology now enables bonding steel profiles to timber beams without premature timber failure under significant bending loads. Our large-scale 4-point-bending tests show improvements in bending stiffness (up to 250%) and load-carrying capacity (up to 120%) compared to traditional glulam beams. These findings suggest competitive and resource-efficient solutions, particularly for multi-storey buildings requiring large floor spans. This paper provides simple engineering calculation models for reliable design of this innovative solution: doi.org/10.3390/ma17051164

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bildEurocode 5 plenary session in Karlsruhe

KIT Timber Structures was thrilled to host the first face-to-face meeting of the SC 5 Plenary after the end of the enquiry period. While points of view can differ, we managed to realize informed discussions, tackling our task in a collaborative and productive atmosphere.

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News 2023
bildWillowWeave - Large-scale hybrid tests

KIT Timber Structures and Building Construction performed large-scale tests on earth-willow-wood hybrid ceiling components, as part of the WILLOW WEAVE project. The collaborative research project WILLOW WEAVE investigated digitally prefabricated earth-willow-wood hybrid ceiling components with the aim of expanding and diversifying the range of regrowing and recyclable building materials through digital design and fabrication methods. Click here for more info

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EhlbeckObituary Prof. Ehlbeck

On September 21, 2023, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Ehlbeck passed away shortly before reaching the age of 93. We have lost a highly esteemed personality, an outstanding teacher and scientist and a good friend.

Obituary (PDF)
bild50 years of INTER

50 years ago, the forefathers of timber structures and research met for the first meeting of CIB-W18. Since then, more than 1300 papers were presented and discussed in 56 meetings of CIB-W18, now INTER. These papers are the foundation of todays timber design & standards, the CIB Code being the basis for a draft ISO timber design code as well as the first Eurocode 5. Read more about the 50-year history here: PDF

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bildAnja Husel: First KIT and then?

Great prospects for KIT students: Around 85 per cent of our alumnae and alumni are more than satisfied with their current job! Anja Husel, our former student and timber structure graduate, is one of them. She now works as a structural engineer at Harrer Ingenieure GmbH. In the series "First KIT - and then?", she explains how she got there and how she evaluates her time at KIT in retrospect. Video at youtube

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bildTeaching award for Prof. Dietsch

During the annual celebration of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Prof. Dietsch was given the honour of being awarded the KIT Faculty Teaching Prize 2023, a prize that is awarded on the recommendation of KIT students. Video at youtube

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News
bildInaugural lecture of Prof. Dietsch

A few weeks ago, Prof Dietsch had the opportunity to give his inaugural lecture as part of the symposium celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Research Institute for Steel, Timber and Masonry. "I put my heart and soul into this subject and therefore also into this lecture. I was all the more pleased about the positive feedback from the colleagues present and the numerous enquiries from colleagues who were unable to make it to our symposium. In order to fulfil the wishes of our esteemed colleagues, we have produced a video of this lecture, which is now available on YouTube." Video at youtube

LinkedIn
bildReview of 100 years of the Research Centre

We were delighted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Versuchsanstalt für Stahl, Holz und Steine with you on 6 and 7 October 2022. The festive event also provided a wonderful opportunity to officially bid farewell to Professor Blaß and thank him for his innovative and influential work in timber construction. Special thanks also go to the two keynote speakers Jan Knippers and Pierre Quenneville.

Read a review here

LinkedIn
bildINTER 2022

Happy days and excellent exchange timber engineering research and standardisation at INTER 2022 in Bad Aibling. INTERaction between 75 recognised researchers, INTERest in 26 high-quality papers, INTERface between research and standardisation! Thanks to all authors for their contributions! And special thanks to our hosts Simon Aicher and Stefan Winter!

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bildStructural competition "Bridge out of the Bag"

This week, as part of the 2022 construction competition at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), we organised the "bridge out of the bag" construction competition. In this competition, the students had to build a bridge with a span of 3 metres. This bridge had to fit into a bag 1 m high. The bridge had to be assembled on site within 30 minutes. In the first test, the bridge had to withstand a moving load (Prof Dietsch). In the second test, the bridge had to collapse under a predefined load (all group members).

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bildCompletion of project InnoCrossLam

It was a great pleasure for us to present our results and innovations from the pan-European CLT project, InnoCrossLam, live to the wood community at the ForestValue Conference in the Sara Cultural Centre, Skelleftea. In this context, we were able to collect the most important future topics for solid wood construction from the experts present. Despite corona, our research group has really grown together and we look forward to continuing to work with these outstanding researchers.

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bildCompletion of project hardwood_joint

A test method was developed to evaluate the feasibility of inserting small diameter fasteners, like nails and staples, into non-pre-drilled hardwood. Suitable fasteners from this study were tested to validate design models. Results indicate existing softwood design models are transferable to hardwood. High-density hardwood causes new failure types, leading to an analytical design model currently being validated. Innovative test setups measuring normal forces along the anchor axis showed increased load-bearing capacities. Self-drilling screws, particularly effective along their axis, also showed higher stiffness and capacity. The study focused on bolt group connections, developing user rules for reliable design and load calculations. Numerous test series validated these models, confirming that existing design models for staples and nails are applicable. Proposed regulations include increasing minimum screw spacing to 8d in the fibre direction and pre-drilling screws. Find here the final report

bildSchneider Bautabellen: Chapter Timber Structures

Since this 25th edition, Prof. Dietsch has had the honour of being responsible for Chapter 9 "Timber Construction" together with Prof. Colling. This chapter is only good for everyone involved if the 70 pages available provide you with the best possible information. Therefore, please let Prof Dietsch know if you notice any errors or ambiguities, which topics you would like to see covered in more detail, which content you think could be reduced and, in general, what other suggestions you have for improvement. Your feedback (LinkedIn or by e-mail) will help us to respond even more precisely to your needs in the next edition. Thank you!

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