Bauhaus-Universität Weimar: International

The international award recognises outstanding teaching practices in higher education and promotes innovation, collaboration, and knowledge sharing across European academic institutions. Taking an innovative approach that combines virtual technology, remote labs, and interactive teaching methods in civil engineering, the PARFORCE project impressed the jury.

Under the direction of Jr. Prof. Lars Abrahamczyk (Professorship of Advanced Structures), the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar received 287,470.00 euros from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to establish a strategic partnership between Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), the University of Osijek (UNIOS), and the Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology (IZIS). The funding was provided as part of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership for Digital Education programme (2022-2023) under the project title »Partnership for Virtual Laboratories in Civil Engineering« (PARFORCE for short).

The goal of this was to develop a shared platform for large-scale virtual tests, which are not part of standard training in civil engineering at European universities, but are also carried out at specialised institutes. Using virtual reality, augmented reality, and a learning management system, realistic large-scale wind, fire, and earthquake test scenarios were modelled, providing a deeper technical understanding. »The project relies on a dual assessment system and collaborative teaching; this improved student engagement and learning, making this approach a valuable advance in technical education«, said the international expert jury, explaining their decision for the 1st place award.

Various learning and teaching activities were organised for Master’s students and doctoral candidates, including research projects involving experimental tests on structural resistance to wind, fire, and earthquakes. The results and experiences were presented in individual thematic units at various national and international conferences as presentation and publications. They were also integrated into an Open Access platform that was specifically designed for this purpose.

Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel
The virtual tour through the wind tunnel at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Wind Engineering and Fluid Mechanics (WIST) research group, is made up of 14 scenarios that present the entire facility from the outside of the building to the interior of the wind tunnel chamber. Two different laboratory experiments are presented in this virtual tour, the boundary layer test on the grouped cylinders and the free and forced oscillation test on the horizontal cylinder.
360-degree.education/Wind_Tunnel/

Fire Resistance Test Laboratory
The virtual tour of the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Aveiro’s Fire Resistance Test Laboratory shows a fire resistance test carried out on a sheet of drywall. The test was carried out to evaluate the integrity against flames, hot gases, and thermal insulation with regard to the criteria of the standard fire classification. It should be noted that the environmental conditions and test set-up in this facility are not suitable for large groups of visitors. The fire resistance tests are carried out under safety precautions and only technical staff are allowed to personally supervise the tests.
360-degree.education/Fire_Resistance/

Earthquake Lab (quasi-static test)
The virtual tour includes four scenes: three panoramas and one 360-degree video. The panorama footage is taken from the column element at the beginning of each test, once from the column without damage at the hinge area, and once after the damaged element from the first test is repaired by polyurethane material and is about to be tested again under the same load cases. The third panorama scene depicts the entire test scene from another perspective. The 360-degree video has been used to show an overview of the laboratory and test set-up, and to provide users with an understanding of how slowly the column element moves during each loading cycle.
360-degree.education/Earthquake_Lab/

Further information: www.uni-weimar.de/de/bau-und-umwelt/professuren/komplexe-tragwerke/forschung/abgeschlossene-projekte/parforce/