news

The first railroad bridge in Germany made of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) has gone into operation on Bavaria's Tegernsee-Bahn railroad route near Gmund. The innovative high-performance concrete made it possible to build a particularly thin bridge. Engineers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) planned the project and provided scientific supervision.

Steel bridges cost a lot of money to build. It's been estimated that the new motorway viaduct near Oberthulba in Bavaria will cost around 85 million Euros. Planners know that in order to save on material costs, build components should be designed with as much openwork as possible, whilst maintaining stability.

Research news In the summer of 2017, researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) pushed the old Saale bridge in Hammelburg in Franconia to its limits: They carried out a total of five load tests - resulting in nasty cracks. In combination with laboratory tests, they hope to determine whether older bridges have greater load reserves than previously assumed.

Research news Concrete components are traditionally made by casting. But the mold needed places significant limitations on design possibilities. 3D printing now provides new freedom in shaping. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are experimenting with various processes, including selective binding.

Research news Trees in metropolitan areas have been growing faster than trees in rural areas worldwide since the 1960s. This has been confirmed for the first time by a study on the impact of the urban heat island effect on tree growth headed by the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The analysis conducted by the international research team also shows that the growth of urban trees has already been exposed to changing climatic conditions for a long period of time, which is only just beginning to happen for trees in rural areas.

Research news More traffic, heavier loads: When bridges in Germany over the age of 50 are evaluated according to current standards, calculations show that many of them theoretically have substantial deficiencies. Nevertheless many bridges exhibit no damage that confirms the calculated structural shortfalls.

Companies with women on their executive and supervisory boards are valued more highly by the stock markets. Investors rate the performance of the few women who climbed to the top of the career ladder in companies without a gender quota as being better than that of their male peers. Economists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the University of Hong Kong used an unusual method to reach this conclusion.

The Munich metropolitan area is under pressure from the rapidly growing economy and population. Affordable living space is difficult to come by and the transport infrastructure is overloaded. Researchers at Technical University of Munich (TUM) have provided approaches for how to sustainably change transportation planning and regional development as part of the study "Living, Working and Mobility in Munich Metropolitan Area".

Bridges, tunnels and roads: Concrete is the main component of our infrastructure. And when the structural elements need to be repaired, it often leads to long traffic jams. At the Annual Meeting of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) in Washington, D.C. Prof. Christian Grosse from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and other experts talked about smart materials for sustainable infrastructure.