Emmanuel Denarié

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20 Years bridge over la Morge
The first cast on-site application of Strain Hardening Ultra-High-Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) in Switzerland took place for the rehabilitation and widening of the Bridge over the river “La Morge” near the town of Sion in the Swiss Alps in 2004 in the framework of the EU project SAMARIS.  An experimental campaign and a detailed visual survey were performed after 19.5 years of exposure to de-icing salts in spring 2024 to characterise chloride penetration in various parts of the bridge and validate the entire surface waterproofing function of the UHPFRC overlay. This is the first time that the performances of cast-on-site UHPFRC without thermal treatment have been investigated over such a long period.

See: "Denarié, E., Sofia, L., Rudaz, J., (2024), "Cast-on site UHPFRC for the rehabilitation of existing structures - Feedback over 20 years of exposure to chlorides",  AFGC-RILEM-IABSE-fib-ACI Int. Symposium on Ultra-High Performance Fibre-Reinforced Concrete, UHPFRC 2024 – October 21-23, 2024, Menton, France,  RILEM PRO 138, e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-239-8.



Low carbon PE-UHPFRC
Emmanuel Denarié is  at the origin of the development of next generation ultra high-performance fiber-reinforced concretes (UHPFRC) with synthetic UHWM PE fibers, adapted for structural applications (project within SNSF NRP 70 and supervision doctoral thesis Amir Hajiesmaeili - 2019). These new materials dramatically decrease CO2 emissions and Embodied Energy footprints and open a wide field of new opportunities for the rehabilitation of existing structures and construction of new ones.

http://p3.snf.ch/project-154063

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/271689

Note that extreme care has to be taken to avoid the dissemination of synthetic "plastic" fibers in the environment. Norway banned in 2015 discontinuous polymer Macrofibers used in FRC, in road tunnels, see:
Myren, Synnøve, Per Hagelia, and Øyvind Bjøntegaard. "The Ban of Polymer Fibre in Frsc in Norwegian Road Tunnels." Paper presented at the 8th International Symposium on Sprayed Concrete, Trondheim, Norway, 2018.


First UHPFRC application for bridge rehabilitation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SRC07L33ZU


Reinforcement of lighthouses with UHPFRC
https://actu.epfl.ch/news/concrete-developed-at-epfl-to-rescue-brittany-s-li/

EPFL ENAC IIC CONSTRUCT
GC B3 435 (Bâtiment GC)
Station 18
1015 Lausanne

Web site:  Web site:  https://CONSTRUCT.epfl.ch

EPFL ENAC IIC GIS-GE
GC B3 435 (Bâtiment GC)
Station 18
1015 Lausanne

Web site:  Web site:  https://www.epfl.ch/schools/enac/gis/

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Administrative data

Fields of expertise

UHPFRC, UHPC, UHFB, BFUP, Concrete
Discontinuous Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composites
Time dependent response of cementitious materials
Engineering of existing concrete structures
Conservation of lighthouses at sea
Tensile response and inverse analyses (UHPFRC)
In-situ characterization of the permeability of cover concrete

Teaching & PhD

Teaching

Civil Engineering

PhD Programs

Courses

Statics (for GC)

The aim of this course is to develop an understanding of static models of structures. It presents the study of the interplay of forces in isostatic constructions made up of bars, beams and cables.

Engineering of existing structures

The engineering of existing structures encompasses the examination of condition and load-carrying capacity, decision criteria, and methods for rehabilitation or strengthening. This course presents the bases necessary for this approach at the level of materials and structural response.

Materials and structures

Starting with basic knowledge of concrete technology, this course provides an understanding of the relationships between the composition, processing, microstructure and structural properties of "new concretes", with a particular focus on Ultra High Performance Fiber Concretes (UHPFRC).

New Concretes for Structures

This course provides an in-depth coverage of mechanical and physical properties of Ultra High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concretes (UHPFRC), in the framework of new concretes for sustainable structures. It provides an extended and comprehensive insight on these materials.

Living in Mars

This course proposes to students of the 3 ENAC sections (AR,GC,SIE) to design in groups a space habitat on planet Mars. In an interdisciplinary way, they will approach problematics which they will have to analyze, interpret, integrate and represent.