Kilsgatan 4
411 04 GÖTEBORG
Tel 010-211 50 00
Fax 010-211 53 01
Project name
Thesis Projects at Reinertsen 2015, Göteborg
Project no.
Date
2014-09-23
Since its introduction in Sweden in 1990, there has been a cooperative scheme between
Reinertsen and Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg. Among other things
Reinertsen is a frequent supervisor of Thesis projects in the field of Civil Engineering for the last twenty-two years. Supervision of master’s and bachelor’s thesis projects is an important part of Reinertsen’s marketing towards the future engineers currently being students. The thesis work is usually carried out at the Reinertsen office, in close contact with the supervisor, and the subjects studied are usually related to past or coming projects.
Reinertsen in Göteborg usually get applications from approximately 15-20 groups each year regarding thesis projects at the company. During 2015 we plan to supervise 5-6 thesis projects within the field of Structural Engineering. We will consider all applicants and then determine who/whom we will accept. To do this we will need the following information:

Description of the applicants with CV (personal letter, no more than one A4 page).

Copy of grades from the University.

Information of which thesis project(s) is/(are) of interest.

When during the year you would prefer to do your master’s thesis project at
Reinertsen and how flexible you are in this.
Even though it is not a strict demand, Reinertsen does recommend that the master’s thesis projects are carried out by a group of two persons rather than alone. If you are a pair of two persons applying together make sure that your applications clearly state this and that your information is sent in together.
Deadline for applying to do your Thesis at Reinertsen during 2015 is set to 19 October,
2014. Send in your application to Morgan Johansson by email.
Note that the thesis projects described in this documented will be carried out at
Reinertsen’s office in Göteborg; they do not apply for thesis projects at other Reinertsen offices.
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Morgan Johansson
Kilsgatan 4
411 04 GÖTEBORG
Phone: 010-211 53 01
Mail: morgan.johansson@reinertsen.com
www.reinertsen.se

Kilsgatan 4
411 04 GÖTEBORG
Tel 010-211 50 00
Fax 010-211 53 01
Project name
Thesis Projects at Reinertsen 2015, Göteborg
Project no.
Date
2014-09-23
In order to design a steel beam according to today's current standards, such as
Eurocode 3, a large amount of calculations are required which are very time consuming.
This has led to the fact that structural engineers use complete programs, e.g. Colbeam,
Staad.Pro and SAP2000, to carry out the design. The disadvantage of using actual calculation program is that the user loses control over key assumptions, which may lead to incomplete or incorrect calculations. This risk is greater for problems with complex analytical solutions, such as lateral-torsional buckling or twisting of beams with open cross-section.
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This Master Thesis will be a continuation from two previous projects carried out at
Reinertsen in 2013 and 2014. In these theses mono and double symmetric steel beams have been studied. This thesis aims to immerse into the background and theory for control of mono symmetric steel cross sections. Examples of questions that are of interest in this thesis are:
• What analytical formula for calculating the critical lateral-torsional bending moment for an open non-symmetrical cross section best match the results from designing programs? How well do these formulas correspond to an FE-model created in
ADINA?
• What stresses do you get in a vertically loaded UPE profile? What additional stresses may be of interest when twisting of the cross section occurs? How are these additional stresses considered by design programs such as Colbeam, Staad.Pro and
SAP2000?
Introductions and continuous guidance will be given for the use of all relevant programs. The Master Thesis project is carried out as a co-operation between Reinertsen and the Division of Structural Engineering, Chalmers. The work will mainly be carried out at Reinertsen’s office in Göteborg. Supervisors will be Martin Gustafsson
(Reinertsen) and Bo Edlund (Chalmers).

Kilsgatan 4
411 04 GÖTEBORG
Tel 010-211 50 00
Fax 010-211 53 01
Project name
Thesis Projects at Reinertsen 2015, Göteborg
Project no.
Date
2014-09-23
Steel bridges are vulnerable to fatigue loading, and details such as welded connections often govern the dimensions needed in design. In Eurocode the allowed stress levels with regard to the geometry of the detail are given for common connections. However, more advanced 3D analyses are allowed to achieve higher strength than those given in the simplified cases.
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3D analyses are time consuming and in practise often avoided using conservative assumptions. This leads to thicker steel sections than necessary and hence higher cost.
This Master Thesis will examine some of the most common welded steel connections using detailed 3D analysis. The main focus will be put on weld attachments and stiffeners. Some of the questions that are of interest are:

How do stresses using 3D notch analysis compare to the values given in the simplified cases in Eurocode.

How does the thickness of the steel plates affect the stresses in a notch stress analysis?

How does the geometry of the weld affect the stresses in a notch stress analysis?
The Master Thesis project is carried out as a co-operation between Reinertsen and the
Division of Structural Engineering, Chalmers. The work is mainly carried out at
Reinertsen’s office in Göteborg and supervisor at Reinertsen will be Emanuel Trolin.

Kilsgatan 4
411 04 GÖTEBORG
Tel 010-211 50 00
Fax 010-211 53 01
Project name
Thesis Projects at Reinertsen 2015, Göteborg
Project no.
Date
2014-09-23
If a structure needs to elongate in any way and it is hindered to do so, restraining forces will appear. In a concrete structure such restraining forces may occur due to for example temperature and shrinkage. Both can be regarded as deformation induced loads acting on a structure, and hence, differ from those loads one usually regard as the main loads acting on a structure; e.g. dead weight, load from traffic, wind or snow etc. However, those restrained forces may often be the cause of considerable problems in the design process, especially in the Serviceability State. This is partly due to the engineer not being used to think in terms of restrained forces, and thus, does not realise how to make a proper design in order to take their effects into consideration.
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This Master Thesis will be a continuation from four previous projects carried out at
Reinertsen in 2006 to 2011. In these theses unreinforced, reinforced and fibre reinforced structures have been studied. Restraints due to connection with ground and/or connecting structural members are considered. Special interest will be put on:
 interaction of restraining forces and load induced forces,
 investigate the effect of crack widths and crack patterns of retaining walls and walls in slab frame bridges,
 the development of a simple method and/or design tool that can be used when dealing with restraining forces in the preliminary and final design stages.
The aim of the master’s project is to increase the knowledge of how to design reinforced concrete structures with regard to the restraining forces that are obtained due to deformation induced loading. The work consists of literature studies in combination with linear and nonlinear finite element analyses used to study different load cases.
The master’s thesis project is carried out as a co-operation between Reinertsen and the
Division of Structural Engineering, Chalmers. The work will mainly be carried out at
Reinertsen’s office in Göteborg and supervisor at Reinertsen will be Emanuel Trolin and
Morgan Johansson.

Kilsgatan 4
411 04 GÖTEBORG
Tel 010-211 50 00
Fax 010-211 53 01
Project name
Thesis Projects at Reinertsen 2015, Göteborg
Project no.
Date
2014-09-23
In the bridge design community the usage of 3D finite element analyses (FE analyses) have increased substantially in the last few years. In liaison with the increased usage of such analyses, though, problems that were not apparent when using more traditional design tools have appeared. One such problem is how to interpret local force concentrations that arise in linear elastic analyses.
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In a concrete structure such force concentrations will in reality lead to concrete cracking and yielding of the reinforcement; thus resulting in favourable effects due to force redistributions. However, it is not clear of how to deal with this using the results from linear elastic FE analyses and an important problem to solve is therefore how such force concentrations can be distributed over a larger region in the design process.
This project is a continuation of two Master’s Theses carried out in 2013 and 2014. In these projects a simplified modelling technique, based on beam grillage models and moment-curvature relations, were used to simulate the non-linear response of reinforced concrete slabs subjected to point loads. This method has shown to be a numerically stable and powerful approach but there still are some uncertainties of how the modelling shall be done. Questions to examine are:

How can the simplified modelling technique be improved? Comparisons will be made between experimental tests and FE analyses in order to better understand how to determine the mechanical parameters of the beam grillage model used.

Redistribution of shear forces (previous Master’s Theses have focused on the moment) in simple slab structures when subjected to a point load.

Redistribution of moments in a more complex slab structure. Is there a risk that the redistribution of moments over an effective width may cause problems in another part of the slab due to global force equilibrium?
The master’s thesis project is carried out as a co-operation between Reinertsen and the
Division of Structural Engineering, Chalmers. The work is mainly carried out at
Reinertsen’s office in Göteborg and supervisor at Reinertsen will be Emanuel Trolin and
Morgan Johansson.

Kilsgatan 4
411 04 GÖTEBORG
Tel 010-211 50 00
Fax 010-211 53 01
Project name
Thesis Projects at Reinertsen 2015, Göteborg
Project no.
Date
2014-09-23
In the bridge design community the usage of 3D finite element analyses (FE analyses) have increased substantially in the last few years. Such analyses often provide the possibility for a more accurate study of the structure than what is possible by using more traditional 2D based design tools. However, compared to the traditional method the use of 3D models may also cause problems that were not previously an issue.
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The aim of this master’s thesis is to identify, describe and evaluate different potential problems that might arise when using 3D FE analyses in the design. This will include interviews with experienced designing engineers, literature studies and linear elastic FE analyses. Further, a survey to designing engineers of how they deal with the identified potential problems is of interest. Examples of possible problems are:

How is the effect of local force concentrations in a concrete slab handled? Is the concentrations redistributed over a certain width, and if so, how is this width determined?

The effects of temperature and shrinkage may cause very large, tensile normal forces in concrete structures that are not realistic. How is such effects dealt with
(e.g. methods to reduce the stiffness due to creep or cracking, code load reduction, alternative method to consider such effects)?

Slab frame bridges are often equipped with so called wing walls connected to the frame wall. Traditionally such wing walls were usually not taken into account when designing the frame wall. When using 3D models the presence of the wing walls will affect the design of the frame wall; something that might cause problems. How is this normally dealt with in the design today?

When designing a tunnel using a 3D model the global bending moment of the tunnel will cause its flanges to have membrane compressive and tensile forces.
When designing the reinforcement in the flange for local bending moment, in combination with global tensile forces from such a model, problems with large reinforcement amounts may arise. How is this handled in the practical design?
The master’s thesis project is carried out as a co-operation between Reinertsen and the
Division of Structural Engineering, Chalmers. The work is mainly carried out at
Reinertsen’s office in Göteborg and supervisor at Reinertsen will be Morgan Johansson.

Kilsgatan 4
411 04 GÖTEBORG
Tel 010-211 50 00
Fax 010-211 53 01
Project name
Thesis Projects at Reinertsen 2015, Göteborg
Project no.
Date
2014-09-23
Pedestrian bridges are generally lightweight structures which may be extremely sensitive to loads that have oscillating character, such as wind and walking or running groups of people. In Eurocode comfort levels for bridge structures are stipulated as maximum vertical and lateral accelerations. However, it does not present the loads nor the methodology for performing the analysis that provides these accelerations.
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In the literature several methods are proposed of how to model the loading for a pedestrian bridge. The methods present possibilities for both simple and more advanced numerical models. However, there is need for increased understanding where the respective method is applicable, how much conservatism is included in the simplified methods, and whether the methods can be classified in term of time consumptions vs.
improved quality of the obtained results.
This Master Thesis will be a continuation from a previous project carried out at
Reinertsen in 2014. In this thesis the current proposed standards around Europe are summarized and explained. It is shown that the information given in Eurocode is insufficient for performing a complete dynamic analysis of pedestrian loading. Also a method for performing a graphical comparison between different standards, independent of bridge geometry, is created and executed for simply supported bridges. Examples of questions that are of interest in this thesis are:

How should Eurocode be complemented and by which standard to achieve a complete analysis of pedestrian loading?

What influence does the mass have on the obtained accelerations? Are the acceleration limits given in Eurocode equally relevant for bridges made of concrete, steel or timber?

How does the accelerations response obtained in a 3D analysis compare to a simplified 2D analysis? Can rules be established for when 2D analysis are sufficiently accurate?
The Master Thesis project is carried out as a co-operation between Reinertsen and the
Division of Structural Engineering, Chalmers. The work is mainly carried out at
Reinertsen’s office in Göteborg and supervisor at Reinertsen will be Emanuel Trolin.

Kilsgatan 4
411 04 GÖTEBORG
Tel 010-211 50 00
Fax 010-211 53 01
Project name
Thesis Projects at Reinertsen 2015, Göteborg
Project no.
Date
2014-09-23
Explosions are extreme incidents that may have to be considered in the design of structures for various applications. Except from apparent cases, such as military installations and civil defence shelters, design with regard to explosions is required for instance in the processing industry and for road traffic tunnels.
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The knowledge of how to design buildings to withstand the effect of explosions and other impact actions is limited. Hence, the aim of this master’s project is to examine different design approaches for impulse loading on different types of structural systems.
This project is a continuation of six previous master’s theses carried out in 2005-2013, in which the behaviour of concrete beams and slabs were studied. Possible questions to examine are:

Previous Master Theses have dealt with the response of impulse loaded beams and slabs. How should this knowledge be applied to analyse the response of a structural system composed of several structural members?

The response of a structural system depends on the dynamic and structural properties of its individual members. How can one use a simplified model to predict the resulting response of such a system subjected to impulse loading? In what way is the total response affected by the dynamic properties of the individual members?

An impulse loaded structure will sway back and forth. What effect will it have on the response of a structure for which its mechanical properties and boundary conditions depend on which direction the structure deforms? How can this be taken into account in a simplified design tool?
The master’s thesis project is carried out as a co-operation between Reinertsen and the
Division of Structural Engineering, Chalmers. The work will mainly be carried out at
Reinertsen’s office in Göteborg and supervisor at Reinertsen will be Mattias Carlsson and Morgan Johansson.
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Kilsgatan 4
411 04 GÖTEBORG
Tel 010-211 50 00
Fax 010-211 53 01
Project name
Thesis Projects at Reinertsen 2015, Göteborg
Project no.
Date
2014-09-23
When two objects collide an impact load is obtained. Examples of such events are when a vehicle crash into a barrier, an object dropped at lifting or an object thrown by strong wind into a wall.
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The aim of this master’s project is to describe how the design, with regard to impact load caused by the collision of two objects, may be carried out. The project will be carried out as a combination of literature studies, linear and non-linear analyses using both simplified two degree of freedom (2DOF) models and finite element (FE) models.
This project is a continuation of a previous master’s thesis carried out in 2014, in which the behaviour of a linear elastic beam subjected to impact was studied. Possible questions to examine are:

The response of a collision depends on the structural properties of the two objects involved. For a concrete beam the handling of this is clear but what is appropriate to use when the object consists of a slim steel tube or a vehicle that buckles? How do these properties vary for different types of vehicles (e.g. cars, lorries, trucks)?

How is the correspondence between a simplified 2DOF model and FE models affected when plastic response of the impact object and/or the structure is taken into account? What criteria should be fulfilled to make it applicable to assume a plastic collision?

How can the impact of a reinforced concrete slab be regarded when using a simplified 2DOF model? Is it possible to use a concept similar to that of a beam?
How is the failure mode of the slab affected when the load area is small and the load applied fast? What types of local failure modes may occur when a slap is subjected to such loads?
The master’s thesis project is carried out as a co-operation between Reinertsen and the
Division of Structural Engineering, Chalmers. The work will mainly be carried out at
Reinertsen’s office in Göteborg and supervisor at Reinertsen will be Morgan Johansson.

Kilsgatan 4
411 04 GÖTEBORG
Tel 010-211 50 00
Fax 010-211 53 01
Project name
Thesis Projects at Reinertsen 2015, Göteborg
Project no.
Date
2014-09-23
Division of Structural Engineering, Chalmers, has the last 20 years been performing research within structural response with respect to explosions. The application for the research is civil structures; both civil defence shelters and civil structures with increased demands to withstand explosions within the urban environment. An important feature of a structure subjected to close range explosion is to withstand spalling where material of the structure breaks lose at the rear side of the structure. In order to evaluate the response and to be able to design with respect to spalling a deeper understanding for how spalling occurs and is affected is needed. For concrete materials, this understanding is currently rather limited.
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The project will focus on a recently developed hypothesis of how spalling, due to a nearby detonation, occurs in concrete. Parameter studies will be carried out to determine the importance of the level of details with respect to the load description and material response. The work focuses on working with numerical routines in Matlab. Different numerical routines to describe crack-softening in concrete will be used, such as plasticity models and damage models. These material routines will be modified and further developed in the project to describe different softening braches for plain concrete and fibre concrete.
The master’s thesis project is carried out as a co-operation between Division of
Structural Engineering, Chalmers, and Reinertsen. The work is mainly carried out at the
Division of Structural Engineering, Chalmers. Supervisor at Chalmers will be Jonas
Ekström and examiner will be adjunct professor Morgan Johansson from Reinertsen.

Kilsgatan 4
411 04 GÖTEBORG
Tel 010-211 50 00
Fax 010-211 53 01
Project name
Thesis Projects at Reinertsen 2015, Göteborg
Project no.
Date
2014-09-23
Kunskapen om hur man dimensionerar och producerar på ett ekonomieffektivt sätt är ofta föråldrad. För att kunna bibehålla och utveckla en konkurrenskraft gäller det att denna kunskap är uppdaterad. Dels med avseende på vad som hänt med maskinparken i verkstäderna och dels vad som hänt med nya, mer användarvänliga, datorprogram för ingenjören. Dessa saker påverkar arbetstid, antal operationer och slutligen kostnader för genomförandet. Genom detta examensarbete önskas kunskapen om kostnader och tid uppdateras och spridas, vilket blir till stor hjälp för den verksamme ingenjören vid val av svets under detaljutformning och huruvida det är värt att optimera lösningen.
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Kandidatexamensarbetet syftar till att utreda hur stor påverkan kostnad för produktion har jämfört med kostnad för ingenjören på den slutliga totalkostnaden med hänsyn till svetstyper och svetsstorlekar. Detta för att kunna påverka hela kedjan från ingenjörsarbete till produktion och göra denna process mer kostnads- och tidseffektiv. För att kunna utreda detta kommer examensarbetaren bland annat behöva:

Göra en litteraturstudie för att se vad som finns gjort inom området.

Intervjua ingenjörer och inköpare hos Reinertsen.

Ta kontakt med olika verkstäder angående produktionskostnaderna samt undersöka vad de anser är mest effektivt att göra.
Målet med examensarbetet är att hitta en gyllene medelväg mellan ingenjörs- och produktionskostnader, så att det lättare går att avgöra vikten av att optimera en lösning
(ingenjörskostnader) kontra att lägga mindre tid på optimering och använda mer svetsgods i produktionen (produktionskostnader). Vidare önskas det belysas hur kostnad och tid påverkas av valet av svetstyp.
Kandidatexamensarbetet kommer genomföras som ett samarbete mellan Reinertsen och
Chalmers. Arbetet kommer till huvudsak utföras på Reinertsens kontor i Göteborg och handledare hos Reinertsen kommer vara Hampus Karlsson och Jennifer Hägg.