aerogel is a lightweight silica solid derived from gel in which the liquid component of the gel

has been replaced with gas resulting with a material that is more than 90% air.
Good thermal insulator because they are made entirely of gas which are very
poor heat conductors.

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Vibration of Cross Laminated Timber floor-Wen-shao Chang

Serviceability limit of timber floors has been a problem for long time, and often it
governs the design of timber structures. The current Eurocode 5 has several
problems, one of which is it is only suitable for residential buildings (very likely to
be timber floors supported by joists) with limited span. Another problem is that
there is no design method for cross laminated timber floor, given the factor that
it becomes more and more popular. This is an exciting opportunity for a student
who are good in math or dynamics and like to go out for testing. The project will
work with leading consultancy companies in the UK, such as Arup and Ramboll,
who will enable you to have access to some CLT floor to measure the vibration
and analyse the data. At the end of the project, you will propose a method to
estimate natural frequency of timber floor and damping ratio through analytical
approach verified by on site measurement. It is expected that the outcome will
be part of the proposal put forward to the next revision of National Annex of
Eurocode 5. So, you will travel and do vibration test, you will also do analysis on
the desk.