The next appointment in the PhDTalks seminar series will take place on Wednesday, March 11th, 2026, in Grandori Room (Building 4), from 12:00 to 13:00 CET.

PhDTalks is a series of seminars and discussions among PhD candidates. The events aim to provide a space for networking among doctoral students and for engaging with the many projects developed within our department.

The speaker Gabriele Bocchino will deliver a seminar entitled “Understanding the Fatigue Behaviour of High-Performance Fibre-Reinforced Concrete: From Experimental Investigations to Design Provisions”.

At the end of the event, a light refreshment will be offered, sponsored by the department.

The seminar will also be accessible online at the following link.

Abstract
The topic of fatigue in concrete is receiving increasing attention as a growing number of fatigue-sensitive structures are being constructed. These include energy-harvesting and energy-storage infrastructures, industrial slabs, bridges, and infrastructural pavements, which, over their service life, may undergo millions of load cycles, possibly leading to premature degradation and failure.
Fibre-Reinforced Concrete (FRC), owing to the bridging effect of fibres, exhibits significant tensile resistance and improved toughness compared to plain concrete, enabling it to better withstand cyclic loading. Nevertheless, current design codes only provide fatigue formulations originally derived for plain concrete, strongly limiting the advantages offered by the improved capabilities of FRC.
The talk will outline the problem of fatigue in concrete structures, provide an overview of the behaviour of FRC under fatigue loading, and conclude with new tailored formulations informed by experimental results, aimed at better exploiting the enhanced performance of FRC materials.

Speaker’s Bio
Gabriele D. Bocchino is a PhD candidate in Structural, Seismic and Geotechnical Engineering (39th cycle). He holds a Master of Science in Structural Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, obtained in 2023. He developed his master’s thesis at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, while working as a Scientific Trainee.