European

The overall objective of the project is based on EU and national documents dealing with climate change adaptation and coastal management. The aim is to improve the capacity of urban and coastal communities in the Adriatic to adapt to climate change, including climate-resilient spatial planning and lifelong learning. The project will develop adaptation plans for selected local communities. 

Expected results:

• Strategic guidelines for climate-resilient spatial planning
• Higher Education Curriculum for Climate Transition
• Adaptation plans for selected areas (Crikvenica, Sali)

The project coordinator is the University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics, and the partners are the Institute for Physical Planning of PGC, the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Rijeka, the Municipality of Sali, the City of Crikvenica, the Abruzzo Region, the University of Camerino.

Partner: Faculty of Civil Engineering Rijeka (Assoc. Prof. Iva Mrak)

Project implementation period: 4/2024-9/2026

Budget: 1.928.010,59 € (80% co-financing ERDF)

The RESONANCE project has as a goal to mitigate the risks of landslides and erosion in the Adriatic Region, which pose threats to both human safety and infrastructure, impacting the regional economy and tourism. Leveraging advancements in geophysics, remote sensing, and virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), and augmented reality (AR), the project seeks to enhance understanding and civil protection procedures by improving understanding about thye factors controlling coastal landslides and erosion processes. 

Through the selection of four pilot sites, numerical analyses, and the development of a virtual database for data sharing and visualization, RESONANCE aims to predict future processes and improve communication and cooperation among stakeholders. The integration of VR, MR, and AR will facilitate dissemination methods, promote tourism, and inform the creation of coastal vulnerability plans and civil protection guidelines, with virtual tools playing a key role in tourism promotion.

Lead partner: University of Urbino “Carlo Bo” (Italy)
Partner: Faculty of Civil Engineering (Assoc. Prof. Igor Ružić)

Duration: 3/2024-8/2026
Budget: 1.183.551,15 EUR (80% ERDF)

The project “Prefabricated buildings of almost zero energy produced in an industrial way” is financed from the European Structural and Investment funds within the Call “Increasing the development of new products and services arising from research and development activities – phase II”.

The purpose of the project is to strengthen innovation and international competitiveness TEHNOPLAST PROFILES and Partners by developing a new innovative product – Prefabricated buildings of almost zero energy produced in an industrial way, as a result of IRI activities in the implementation of collaborative research Tehnoplast profiles Ltd. and Palijan Ltd., and the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Rijeka. The realization of the project will also contribute to the strengthening of the research capacities of Tehnoplast profili Ltd. and Palijan Ltd., and the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Rijeka, and encouraging their effective cooperation in the implementation of targeted investments in IRI activities in TPP Energy and Environment. The expected result of IRI activities represents a new step forward in the field of research and development with the application of new and existing knowledge and skills for the development of a new product. The concrete result of research and development will be the calculation model of the resistance of composite panels loaded to bending and transverse force, and the resistance of the ceiling panel – wall panel connection loaded to transverse force. The results of this research represent a new step forward and a turning point in construction.

Project leader: TEHNOPLAST PROFILI Ltd.
Partner institutions: PALIJAN Ltd., Faculty of Civil Engineering (prof. Davor Grandić- leader for the faculty, asist.prof. Paulina Krolo, asist.prof. Paulo Šćulac, asoc.prof. Mladen Bulić, asist.prof. Natalija Bede, Jug Drobac)
Project implementation period: 8/2020-8/2023

The project ” Landslide research for the development of risk mitigation and prevention measures” (PRI-MJER) is funded by the EU Regional Development Fund under the Call “Scheme for strengthening applied research for climate change adaptation measures”-official trailer

The project “PRI-MJER” introduces the concept of measures to adapt to climate change to mitigate and prevent the risk of landslides, and systematically deals with researching ways and elaborating the benefits of their application. The project promotes the concept of landslide risk reduction in a way that will provide the tools and knowledge necessary for decision makers at all levels. The project will also raise public awareness of climate change, make the research results publicly available and strengthen the capacity of researchers.

Project leader: University of Zagreb, Faculty of Mining, Geology and PetroleumPartner institutions: Faculty of Civil Engineering (Professor Željko Arbanas, Assistant Professor Petra Jagodnik)
Project implementation period: 5/2020-5/2023

Web page: https://pri-mjer.hr/
Youtube channel: PRI-MJER

The project ” Management of karst coastal aquatics threatened to climate change” is funded by the EU Regional Development Fund under the Call “Scheme for strengthening applied research for climate change adaptation measures”

The aim of the project is to investigate (monitor and model) the negative effects of climate change in the karst aquifers of coastal areas – increase in salinity and water temperature, deterioration in quality and search for adaptation measures. It will be carried out in the period 2020-2022 in three pilot areas in Croatia – Lake Vrana on the island of Cres, for which the Faculty Civil Engineering in Rijeka is responsible, the Bokanjac Basin – Poličnik near Zadar, for which the Faculty of Geotechnics from Varaždin is responsible, and Blatsko polje on Korčula, for which Croatian Geological Institute is responsible. The Faculty of Civil Engineering in Rijeka is responsible for the hydrological activities in all three pilot areas, for which the State Hydrometeorological Institute is conducting simulations of future climate change, and the Faculty of Geotechnics is leading the project.

Project leader: University of Zagreb, Faculty of Geotechnics
Partner institutions: Faculty of Civil Engineering (Assistant Professor Josip Rubinić-leader and Assistant Professor Igor Ružić, Assistant Professor Bojana Horvat, Maja Radišić, Duje Kalajžić), Croatian Geological Institute, State Hydrometeorological Institute
Project implementation period: 5/2020-10/2022

The project “Protection of structural integrity in energy and transport” is financed from the EUROPEAN STRUCTURAL AND INVESTMENT FUNDS within the Call “Investment in Science and Innovation”

Structures and systems are becoming more and more complex, and the demands placed on efficiency, safety and reliability in design and operation are becoming an increasing challenge. As one of the imperatives, the application of intelligent systems for monitoring and managing dynamically loaded structures has recently been imposed with the aim of protecting the integrity of the structure, i.e. preventing the occurrence of damage and extending its service life. The project focuses on the energy and transport sector, for structures such as wind turbines, turbines, generators, reciprocating engines, parts of process plants, road, rail and other vehicles, conveyors and the like. In order to design an effective system for structural integrity protection, it is necessary to integrate the achievements of basic sciences (theory of automatic and robust control, numerical methods in mechanics, optimisation, etc.), application and integration of modern technologies (control and measurement systems), testing and materials science and related areas. These areas represent the narrower research areas of the project, in particular the “Centre of Excellence for Structural Health Structural Health” (CEEStructHealth) project, and specialized laboratories within the applicant and partner organizations.

Project leader: University of Zagreb, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture
Partner institutions: Faculty of Civil Engineering (Prof. Ivica Kožar, PhD, Associate Professor Neira Torić Malić, PhD) and University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing
Project implementation period: 4/2020-4/2023

The project “Computer model of flow, flooding and spread of pollution in rivers and coastal areas” is funded by the EUROPEAN STRUCTURAL AND INVESTMENT FUNDS within the Call “Scheme for strengthening applied research for climate change adaptation measures”.

The project carries out applied scientific research and develops a computer model for effective modelling of the flow and spread of pollution in open watercourses and in the coastal sea area, accepting river tributaries, torrents, and industrial and wastewater discharges into the coastal sea area. At the same time, a prediction model of microbiological pollution based on artificial intelligence models and the integration of microplastic models of pollution dispersion into the overall model will be developed. The computer model is adapted to the supercomputer environment, which enables high-resolution simulations to be carried out with the aim of implementing measures to mitigate the effects of climate change in priority vulnerable and transversal areas.

Project leader: Faculty of Engineering, University of Rijeka
Partner institutions: Faculty of Civil Engineering (Professor Vanja Travaš, PhD) and Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Ruđer Bošković Institute
Project implementation period: 01/2020-01/2023

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 860124.

The Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Rijeka participates together with 11 other European universities in the implementation of the Horizon 2020 MSCA ITN network of projects called Joint Training on Numerical Modelling of Highly-flexible Structures for Industrial Applications (THREAD)

The THREAD project deals with mechanical modelling, mathematical formulations and numerical methods for highly flexible slim structures and connects engineers and mathematicians in common challenges in industrial application and development of freely accessible software. Young researchers – PhD students – employed within the project will be given broad access to local and networked teaching activities covering the latest research results and additional skills, as well as close cooperation with project partners from industry, who will conduct a broad program of PhD students to gain additional engineering experience. The Faculty of the Civil Engineering University of Rijeka will carry out a research program to develop new and efficient algorithms for modelling the behaviour of satellite dishes under conditions of high inertial forces and high vibration frequencies during launch. As a project partner from industry, the Slovenian Space Agency Space SI from Ljubljana will be involved in the research, where the PhD student will spend three months, while the PhD student will spend another month at the Universities of Innsbruck and Liège. The equations of motion defined on nonlinear manifolds will be integrated in a precise and stable way and the contact forces between curved satellite dishes and the environment during the launch will be determined, and part of the research program will experimentally verify the results in the seismic corner of the Faculty Laboratory for structures.

Coordinator: Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany)
Leader at the Faculty of Civil Engineering: prof.dr.sc. Gordan Jelenić. Team members at the Faculty of Civil Engineering: Edita Papa Dukić, Nina Čeh, Teo Mudrić
Project implementation period: 10/2019-10/2023

Associate professor Leo Škec joined the project as a deputy member of the board of directors within the framework of the CA18203: “Optimizing Design for Inspection” COST action in order to contribute to the successful implementation of the project with his expertise in the field of numerical modelling of damage to composite structures.

Project „Modelling mixed-mode rate-dependent delamination in layered structures using geometrically nonlinear beam finite elements ” founded in H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions Individual Fellowships.

The project proposes a new way to numerically model delamination or separation in layered structures using beam finite elements for the layers, which can be geometrically linear or nonlinear, and velocity dependent cohesion zone (CZM) models for the interface, both based on recent state-of-the-art research. In this way, the project will provide new, more precise, intuitive and computationally much cheaper techniques than those currently available, which will be implemented in open source, user-friendly software and experimentally validated for mode I, mode II and mixed mode testing on aluminum-epoxy adhesive joints. At the end of the project, engineers will be able to numerically simulate tests of various dimensions and material properties to characterize fracture energy and its velocity dependence for existing or new adhesives or other interfaces, with applications including but not limited to metal joints, composite delamination, reinforced elastomers or soft tissue dissection in biomedical engineering.

The research is based on the complementary and internationally highly recognized expertise of the researcher and his PhD at the University of Rijeka (on geometrically nonlinear beam models) and the supervisor at Brunel University (on CZMs and nonlinear finite element analysis). The researcher will have the opportunity to (a) develop world-leading knowledge and expertise in a research topic of great importance for industrial and real-world applications, (b) transfer it to a country where such expertise is limited, and (c) enhance his scientific career and international profile through high quality publications and through his leadership in software development. It will also provide numerous networking opportunities with other research groups and industries around the world for all parties involved in the action.

Leader at the Faculty of Civil Engineering: Assistant professor Leo Škec
Supervisor: BRUNEL UNIVERSITY LONDON, United Kingdom
Project implementation period: 01/10/2016-31/5/2018