A tremendous success!
Our graduate Dr. Evžen Korec has won
the prestigious 2024 Roger Owen Award

The UK Association for Computational Mechanics (UKACM) has awarded the prestigious 2024 Roger Owen Award 2024 for the best Ph.D. thesis to Dr. Evžen Korec, our Bachelor´s and Master´s degree graduate in Structural and Transportation Engineering.

Evžen Korec developed his award-winning dissertation “Phase Field-Based Chemo-Mechanical Modelling of Corrosion-Induced Cracks in Reinforced Concrete” during his studies at the Imperial College London. The dissertation was co-supervised by Prof. Emilio Martínez Pañeda (University of Oxford), Prof. Milan Jirásek (Faculty of Civil Engineering, CTU in Prague) and Prof. Hong S. Wong (Imperial College). The Roger Owen Prize has been awarded since 2002, and the evaluated theses are judged by an expert panel with respect to originality, scientific achievement and innovative numerical methods. In addition, by winning the Roger Owen Award, Evžen Korec automatically becomes a UKACM candidate for the ECCOMAS (European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences) Award.

In his dissertation, Evžen has created a complex multi-physical model for the corrosion of steel reinforcement in reinforced concrete and its effect on crack formation and development, which can progressively lead up to the spalling of the concrete cover layer. He compared his calculations with experimental data and demonstrated why accelerated laboratory tests can lead to erroneous conclusions. He also described the conditions under which corrosion in highly porous concrete remains hidden and does not manifest itself in visible surface cracks. This may have major practical implications for, e.g., aerated concrete panels, which have been widely used in the UK in the construction of public buildings such as schools. It sometimes happens that due to the reinforcement corrosion the whole panel suddenly fails without any preceding warning signs.    

Winning this year´s award is particularly significant as Evžen competed against a strong field of six other finalists sent to the competition by the University of Cambridge, Durham University, the University of Oxford, Queen’s University Belfast, the University of Sheffield and Swansea University.

The UK Association for Computational Mechanics (UKACM) was founded in 1992 to promote research in computational mechanics in Great Britain and to establish formal links with similar associations in Europe and around the world.

Congratulations to Evžen and best wishes for further success on his scientific path!