Engineering Headquarters
“Recent seismic events have dramatically placed the issue of safety in existing buildings on the agenda. These events show that even reinforced concrete structures can be vulnerable, especially if poorly designed or built with poor quality materials. These are the words of Francesca Dezi, professor of the Degree Courses in Civil Engineering at the University of the Republic of San Marino, to underline the relevance of the technical seminar on the "Estimation of the resistance of concrete in situ by means of extraction test" which on 28 and 29 September brought together technicians from all over the peninsula at the University of San Marino, including some experimenters from the "Building materials testing laboratories" authorized by the Italian Superior Council of Public Works, industry professionals and representatives of leading companies in the control and monitoring of civil structures.
At the heart of the initiative is an innovative technique, faster and more reliable than the previous ones, for checking the strength of concrete. It was developed by the teachers and engineers who conducted the seminar: Fabrizio Gara, Stefano Bufarini, Vincenzo D'Aria and Marco Foglia. On the other hand, Francesca Dezi coordinated them, ready to underline that "this technique turns out to be very promising because it can be considered an alternative to the classic invasive sampling of cylindrical concrete samples by core drilling from structural elements and subsequent compression test".
At the end of the seminar, thanks to the presence of Accredia, the single national accreditation body, the participants faced a final certification exam. The seminar was sponsored by the technical-scientific association "Master", in collaboration with AEK Engineering.