i-MaS (Innovative MAterials and Systems) offers consultancy activities for the development, experimentation and modeling aimed at the certification of innovative materials and/or systems for building and construction with structural applications.
This activity fits well into the aims of the ABCLab Laboratory System, as the projects carried out will allow on one hand the expansion of the presence of the Department, thanks to the cooperation with Research Institutions (for example the Italian Technical Approval Body ITC-CNR ) and industrial sector, and to activate, on the other hand, ad hoc interdepartmental collaborations with colleagues from other disciplinary scientific sectors; if projects should require experimental activities, the unit will activate specific collaborations with department or University experimental laboratories. As part of the certification of innovative products and materials for the building industry, I-MaS collaborates with European certification bodies such as the Material Testing Laboratory of the Polytechnic, and with the ITC-CNR (Italy), Dibt (Germany), OIB ( Austria), ITeC (Spain) and CEREMA (France).
Services offered
- Consulting for the certification of construction products with structural applications;
- Development of the road map for obtaining certification and consultancy and assistance in all related activities;
- Management of relations with the certification body;
- Preparation of guidelines or technical evaluation documents if necessary;
- Preparation of technical reports and evaluation of experimental and numerical investigations.
Tools
The working group that will form the I-MAS Laboratory has already developed, experimental protocols for the characterization of materials and devices for structural use (such as seismic absorbers, seismic insulators, anchoring systems on concrete and masonry, connections between glass elements), as well as automated spreadsheets for the processing of experimental data and the derivation of the constitutive links of the materials and the definition of the parameters characterizing the devices under investigation. Furthermore, European Assessment Documents (EADs) have already been developed both for Structural Bearings with special materials and for the characterization of specific properties of Structural Anchors. In this context, Evaluation Reports (ER, Evaluation Roports) have also been drawn up, used for the preparation of European Evaluation Documents (ETA, European Assessment Document) and TR (Technical Report) developed aimed at designing structural anchorages in particular conditions. The experimental protocols, the automatic spreadsheets and the templates of the European Assessment Documents, of the Evaluation Reports and of the Technical Reports will constitute contributions made to the ABCLab system.