Silos Cordoba Group and a research group at UCO will jointly pursue an ambitious project. It all started when, within the Group’s strategy, Silos Cordoba defined a turning oriented to compete in the market for quality and service rather than price. One of the key pillars to carry out this goal is the R & D + i .
The company put Jose Cabrera at the head of this new department and a few months later, Gandaria went a step further by joining the University to achieve its objectives. Jose Cabrera proposed joint project with the University and Rafael Castro Triguero, professor of Mechanical Polytechnic School of Cordoba , was presented to it, redirecting the project. “In my research group we worked on Structural Health Monitoring techniques applied to highway bridges and, most particularly, to the bridges high-speed rail train AVE. Such techniques involve the auscultation of the vibrations of the structures to determine if it works properly or not and. If it does not work properly, we have to find the problem or failure, “says Castro .
Techniques are nondestructive, meaning there is no need of any kind of work or action detrimental to the structure in question . According to Rafael Castro, “the idea is to use the same techniques in the study of large Silos (over 40 m) that the company Gandaria manufactures around the world.”
To carry out the 12 months project, his research group will be hiring a person, Enrique Garcia Macias. He is 24 and is an engineer of roads, canals and ports from the University of Granada.
He was the first in his class and has recently completed the Master of structures taught in the School of Civil Engineering and Ports of the same University.
“I would add that the selection process has been hard, since there were many people with excellent skills,” said the professor.
This project is a pioneer in Spain . “Up to date, I can say that there is only a similar project in Belgium (mixture of computational and experimental work),” says Rafael Castro.
Source: Diario Córdoba
