New and interesting

SAMCoT, Sustainable Arctic Marine and Coastal Technology, will provide impact in offering solutions to the technical challenges associated with Arctic developments, as a basis for the innovation that will be necessary to operate in this region. The Centre's personnel will be a resource for the industry and the society, and students (at all levels of their education) will become the next generation of engineers and scientists who will ensure that sustainability be implemented in all major development projects in the Arctic.

The Opening Ceremony

The Official Opening Ceremony has been held in the Rådsalen of the Main Building of NTNU at the 7 of October 2011.

Around 50 SAMCoT participants and guests took part in the Ceremony, accompanied by a flute student trio, playing classical masterpieces. The presentations made by  Torbjørn Digernes (Rector NTNU), Eirik Normann (Director, Department for Innovation in Industry, NRC), Morten Karlsen (Head of Research Department Going North, Statoil), Ingvald Strømmen (Dean IVT Faculty NTNU) and Sveinung Løset (Center Director, SAMCoT) highlighted the SAMCoT role and ambitions, place in NTNU structure and expectations. The NRC-NTNU agreement has been signed by Rector NTNU Torbjørn Digernes and Director of Department for Innovation in Industry of Research Council of Norway Eirik Normann. Now SAMCoT goes forward full throttle.

 See SAMCoT News and Events for more information.

“If the bolt works as it should, it will significantly improve safety levels in mines and tunnels and reduce maintenance costs,” says Li. “The industry is crying out for new energy-absorbent elements for rock reinforcement, and hopefully that is what we have,” smiles Professor Charlie Li knowledgably.

The invention in question is a new type of bolt for rock reinforcement. The most common method for securing mines and tunnels against rock fall is to install bolts in the country rock. For the maximum benefit to safety such a bolt should be able to tolerate both high load and large deformation in highly stressed rock masses. None of the conventional types of bolts currently in use possess both these properties.

D-bolt

The invention has been given the name “D-bolt”, which stands for deformable-bolt. Laboratory testing has given impressive results, but it will be first in the summer of 2008 that Li will be able to get clear confirmation of just how good the invention is.

“We are about to test 50 D-bolts in a mine in Sweden where the condition of the rock is really poor. In such a severe environment, the bolts would be subjected to significantly large rock deformation in a short period of time. The recorded measurements will show how the bolt functions in a real underground mine environment,” explains Li – who tells us that he is really excited about the results.

Collaboration

Li has worked with rock reinforcement for over 15 years, both at the Luleå University of Technology in Sweden and in the Boliden Mineral mining company, as well as at NTNU since 2004. It was his colleagues at NTNU and in the industry who advised Li to patent protect the invention.

Contact information

• Charlie Li
• Tel: (+47) 73 59 48 48
• Department: Geology and mineral resource engineering, NTNU
• Publications

Source material / Additional reading

1. Original article: Rock Reinforcement: A potential goldmine? Technology Transfer Office, Year in Review, NTNU
2. Byter stål (pdf) SINTEF Bransjenyheter

Professor Langseth's heads a research group which has authored more than 80 articles in internationally refereed journals and over 100 papers in international conferences. His work, and the work of the SIMLab team, has significantly impacted vehicle safety, and earned Langseth international influence. This influence can be seen both in academic circles and in industry, where he has facilitated lasting partnerships between SIMLab and leading car manufacturers.

Present research focus

Professor Langseth's present research focus is the impact and crashworthiness of aluminium and high-strength steel structures as well as lightweight ballistic protection. Included here is the development of test facilities for material testing at elevated rates of strain as well as facilities for impact and crashworthiness testing of components and structures.

SIMLab's impact

Today, the Norwegian light metals industry is a major supplier of safety-related components for the car manufacturing industry – an industry that is becoming increasingly dependent on accurate and effective virtual models of their products. Professor Langseth says there is still a ways to go in terms of convincing car manufacturers of the advantages of using aluminium in cars, but headway has been made. "Over time, we see that the car manufacturing industry is increasingly adopting our ideas. This is the result of 20 years of focused strategic work," stresses Langseth in an earlier interview. SIMLab now holds the distinctive status of a Centre of Excellence, and Langseth praises both SIMLab's partners as well as the Research Council of Norway for their interest and expertise.

SIMLab's utltimate objective is to develop a technology platform for the development of safe and cost-effective structures, structures for anything from offshore technology to cars. To this end Langseth and the SIMLab team have thoroughly mapped the tasks that must be solved to achieve advancements within the strategically important areas of safety, the environment, economy, and structural reliability.

Other honors and appointments

Professor Langseth is a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters the Norwegian Academy of Technical Sciences and was awarded the "Médaille Albert Portevin", Société Francaise de Métallurgie et de Matériaux in 2005. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Impact Engineering and sits on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Mechanics and Materials in Design, Multidiscipline Modeling in Materials and Structures, and Ships and Ocean Structures.

Further reading:

• SIMLab - CRI
• Professor Magnus Langseth
• Crashing into the research front