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Since urbanization and climate are getting stronger, for sustainable development it is crucial to enhance the safety and durability of construction materials. TRaaSH aims to study the response of Self-Healing Concrete (SHC) at elevated temperatures and to develop temperatures dependent properties for SHC. SHC is one of the modern concrete types inspired from the natural process of human wound healing and developed to ensure the longevity and durability of concrete structures. Extending the service life of structures is essential for reducing carbon footprints of the construction industry and managing construction waste. Current research on SHC focuses primarily on its mechanical properties and crack healing efficiency under normal conditions and ambient temperatures. Due to lack of investigations, significant research gaps exist in understanding the performance of SHC at elevated temperatures and in fire exposure scenarios. Understating the response of SHC at elevated temperatures is crucial for ensuring the safety of occupants/users and for the sustainability of concrete structures. TraaSH adopts a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach, bridging together material science, rigorous fire resistance testing, post-fire structural integrity, thermal analysis and structural fire engineering. With Dr. Naveed Alam's support and expertise in structural fire engineering, this fellowship will train me in advanced fire safety engineering and computational modeling, enhancing my knowledge of self-healing technologies. The findings from this interdisciplinary research will help with sustainable construction which will in turn reduce the construction sector's environmental impact contributing to SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities. The project will also help with industrial innovation (SDG9) and will ensure responsible consumption of material (SDG12).

There is a growing focus on hydrogen technologies and the role they likely to have in the development of the future low-carbon economy. The experience accumulated with use of ammonia in industries and its transportation around the globe offers practical, cost-effective means for storage and transport of large quantities of hydrogen compared to compressed gaseous or liquid forms. Ammonia is characterised by its liquid state at ambient conditions, high volumetric and gravimetric energy density. There is a substantial track record and experience on the inherently safer use of ammonia in the industrial environment as it is widely utilised in chemical processing, food production, as an agricultural fertiliser, etc. Emerging of ammonia in a different capacity, i.e. as hydrogen carrier, calls for a reassessment of hazards and associated risks it presents to life, property and environment. This PhD project aims to develop scientifically underpinned safety strategies and engineering solutions for handling large quantities of ammonia used as hydrogen carrier during transport and storage onboard and using relevant infrastructure. The project will review hazards, including toxicity effects, existing prevention and mitigation safety strategies when dealing safely with ammonia. New practices associated with extended use of ammonia for hydrogen economy will be investigated, scenarios of unscheduled ammonia release in enclosures and the open atmosphere will be identified and prioritised. The research outcomes are expected in the form of recommendations for inherently safer use of ammonia for hydrogen applications and may include, e.g. requirements to ventilation in enclosures where ammonia is handled, strategy for the choice of ammonia piping and pumping pressures, a methodology to define hazard distances for different release scenarios in the open atmosphere, others. It is envisaged that the research will rely on the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to study the propagation of ammonia cloud following its accidental discharge and evaporation, the build-up of ammonia concentration and its effect on exposed people. The successful candidate is expected to have a strong background in one of the following disciplines, mathematics, physics, chemistry, fluid dynamics, heat and mass transfer, combustion. Any previous experience of theoretical analysis and or numerical studies is welcome. The research will be conducted at the HySAFER Centre.

The specific hazards and associated risks of hydrogen vehicles use in tunnels are largely unknown and thus prevention and mitigation strategies are not developed or validated. Previous activities were mainly focused on the fire scenarios with fossil fuels and did not address the hydrogen specific hazards, like pressure and thermal effects during accidents related with high pressure hydrogen storage. Therefore, Regulations, Codes and Standards (RCS) require a scientifically sound basis for the understanding of relevant safety aspects, validated engineering models and tools for reliable prediction of an accident dynamics in confined space, and development of innovative prevention and mitigation strategies and engineering solutions. The main unresolved safety concerns include but are not limited to: what are requirements to hydrogen-powered vehicles entering confined structures such as tunnels, what are appropriate venting strategies for confined and congested space, what are hydrogen specific prevention and mitigation concepts to efficiently tackle hydrogen dispersion and combustion, would hydrogen pressure and thermal effects impact the integrity of tunnel structures, e.g. concrete spalling, how may an initiating event lead to devastating consequences through the domino effect, and how to prevent catastrophic rupture of a high-pressure hydrogen tank in a fire to eradicate any possibility of devastating blast waves and fireballs in these confined traffic infrastructures, which are generally perceived as hazardous sceneries per se. These knowledge gaps and technological bottlenecks in hydrogen safety hamper the further inherently safer deployment of hydrogen-powered vehicles, and the public acceptance of the technology. The scope of this doctoral study could include: identification and prioritisation of relevant knowledge gaps; performing analytical and numerical studies to close identified knowledge gaps; development of innovative safety strategies and engineering solutions to prevent and mitigate accidents with hydrogen powered vehicles in confined infrastructure, e.g. due to pressure peaking phenomenon in garage-like enclosures; determination of specific hazard and risk relevant parameters; development and validation of novel engineering tools, required for the hazard and associated risk assessment; evaluation of effectiveness of conventional and innovative prevention and mitigation techniques and accident management strategies with respect to the specific hazards implied with hydrogen use in the confined infrastructure, etc. The expected impact of the study could include but is not limited to: validated contemporary models and tools for hydrogen safety engineering and use of hydrogen transport systems in confined environment; deeper knowledge of the underlying physical phenomena; innovative prevention and mitigation strategies; guidelines for inherently safer design and use of hydrogen systems in confined infrastructures; elimination of the possibility of a "spectacular", high consequences tunnel catastrophic accident with serious impact on the public acceptance of hydrogen technologies (the "show stopper"). The study will focus on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling, use of the relevant software (FLUENT, OpenFOAM, etc.), multi-processor Linux-based hardware, etc. The results of this doctoral research will be used in HySAFER's externally funded projects and should be reported at international conferences. Publication of results in peer reviewed journals is expected.