dr inż. Wojciech SZYMKUĆ

Wojciech SZYMKUĆ, PhD

Full-distance Iron Man doing research on steel and concrete in fire and post-fire conditions.

Assistant Professor

Poznan University of Technology

wojciech.szymkuc[at]put.poznan.pl

I contribute to the work of:

RILEM CFR: Concrete during Fire - Reassessment of the framework,
CEN / TC 127 Fire Safety in Buildings,
PKN KT 180 ds. Bezpieczeństwa Pożarowego Obiektów (Polish Commitee for Standardization, Fire Safety of Buildings).

ONGOING PROJECTS:

The influence of elevated temperatures on lightweight cementitious composites with the analysis of complex stress states in composite columns (2024-2027)
Material and structural response to dynamic actions in fire (2024-2026)
Analysis of the load carrying capacity and stiffness of sustainable composite beams with timber elements (2025-2026)

Searching for motivated students to research steel and concrete at elevated temperatures.

My PhD thesis was awarded in a national competition “Modern Technologies in Construction”, organised by Polish Association of Construction Engineers and Technicians (PZITB Poznan).

Right after the PhD defense

PhD thesis: Analysis of behaviour and residual capacity of fire-exposed concrete-filled tubular columns.

Defended with honours: 15th of May 2024

Author: Wojciech Szymkuć

Supervisor: dr hab. inż. Adam Glema, prof. PUT

Co-supervisor: dr inż. Michał Malendowski

Concrete cylinder during a compression test

Fire-induced collapse of a structure

Project: The influence of elevated temperatures on lightweight cementitious composites with the analysis of complex stress states in composite columns (2023/49/N/ST8/03055)

Funding agency: National Science Centre (NCN)

Project duration: 07.2024 - 06.2027

Principal Investigator: dr inż. Wojciech Szymkuć

Mentor: prof. dr hab. inż. Wojciech Sumelka

In recent years, I have focused on two scientific problems related to the performance of Concrete-Filled Steel Tubular (CFST) columns in fire:

Lightweight Cementitious Composites with Cenosphere (LCCC) with enhanced thermo-mechanical properties
Advanced numerical modelling of structural fire behaviour of CFST columns.

The results show that there is a special type of filling that can help achieve better performance of CFST columns at elevated temperatures. The project aims to explore it further by:

testing LCCC before and after exposure to elevated temperatures (up to 1000 °C),
testing CFST stub columns before and after exposure to elevated temperatures (up to 1000 °C),
developing a mathematical more to describe the material and conducting numerical analyses of the behaviour LCCC and the structural response of CFST columns.

As part of this groundbreaking project, I am seeking highly motivated students who are passionate about making a real difference in structural engineering. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to state-of-the-art research on the influence of elevated temperature on steel and concrete.

The research will be primarily experimental in the first two years. In the later stages, the results of experiments will enable the calibration of mathematical material models and structural analyses.

More information:

Field testing facility

Split Hopkinson Bar

International project: Material and structural response to dynamic actions in fire (2022/47/I/ST8/02394)

Funding agency: National Science Centre (NCN)

Project duration: 01.2024 - 12.2026

Principal Investigators:

Prof. Tomasz Jankowiak (Poznan University of Technology)
Prof. František Wald (Czech Technical University in Prague).

We seek to combine the knowledge and experience of the effects of fast processes (such as explosions) and fire temperatures on building materials and structures.

The research will focus on the influence of fire-induced dynamic actions on structures. The results of planned experiments on material behaviour will enable the calibration of mathematical material models, then their implementation into the structural model, and finally, the analysis of a structure.

The experimental part will be carried out using our existing testing facilities, e.g. Split Hopkinson Bar and a large field test facility.

More information:

My student mgr inż. Tomasz Tyszkiewicz won the first prize in the Diploma Thesis contest organised by The Polish Association of Fire Engineers and Technicians (SITP). The thesis was co-supervised by Wojciech Szymkuć and Prof. Adam Glema. Congratulations Tomasz!

We finished the Visegrad+ project: "Advanced structures design - fire safety guidance for V4" (10.2019-09.2021).

Czech Technical University in Prague - project leader (Zuzana Kubíková, Vladimir Mozer, Frantisek Wald),
Budapest University of Technology (László Horváth, Csaba Szikra, Lajos Takács),
Poznan University of Technology (Michał Malendowski, Wojciech Szymkuc),
University of Belgrade (Milan Spremic),
University of Žilina (Lucia Figuli, Paulína Magdolenová).

Project webpage: http://fire.fsv.cvut.cz/AdvancedFireDesign-V4/index.htm
V4 guidelines on advanced structural fire safety design with Eurocodes: http://fire.fsv.cvut.cz/AdvancedFireDesign-V4/Eurocodes%20FSE%20V4%20guidance%20final.pdf

Third place in the Power Concrete competition. Wojciech Szymkuć & Piotr Tokłowicz (~73 MPa przy 1400 kg/m3). Media: Dni Betonu, LINK do relacji, LINK do polskicement.pl

Preprint of our recent paper:

Szymkuc, W., Toklowicz, P., Ratajczak, M. (2023) The Effect of High Temperature on Lightweight Cementitious Composites with Fly Ash Cenosphere (LCCC). (under review) https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4463651

Lightweight cementitious composites with cenosphere (LCCC) after exposure to elevated temperatures (up to 1200°C).

The goal was to investigate the post-heating stress-strain behaviour of LCCC specimens during several loading and unloading sequences.