In the scope of research and development activities, NCREP has focused on two main, fundamental areas in order to continuously improve the services it provides.

The area of seismic behaviour assessment of traditional Portuguese construction, which also played a key part in NCREP’s formation, has been developed both internally and in the course of a range of collaborations with national and international research and education institutions (Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto/FEUP, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto/ISEP, Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori di Pavia/IUSS Pavia, Universidade de Aveiro/UA, Global Earthquake Model Foundation/GEM), including providing support for internships in a business environment and guidance for master’s theses. This work has allowed a continuous increase of knowledge in this field, as well as providing NCREP with the appropriate tools to conduct studies of seismic vulnerability and seismic strengthening of structures.

At the same time, NCREP has devoted a great deal of effort to studying the structural functioning of existing elements in traditional construction, such as the characterization of timber floors or the evaluation of the resistant capacity of timber and lime partition walls. The work carried out in this regard has allowed NCREP to implement, in its projects, minimal impact rehabilitation solutions suitable for heritage intervention – solutions supported by research and development campaigns.

In this area of research, we would draw particular attention to the study of the problem of pavement vibration, the strengthening of elements or the development of methods for identifying wood species. This research has been strongly complemented with experimental campaigns, such as the characterization of the compressive and cutting strength of timber and lime partition walls, as well as full-scale tests of structural systems taken from existing buildings.

All the work performed has also been supported by close collaboration with national and international research and education institutions (Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto/FEUP, Universidade de Aveiro, Université de Mons).

Get to know some of the topics covered in the internships at NCREP.

• Geometric characterization of non-structural elements in buildings typical of Porto [2019] André Lopes, Summer internship report, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto;
• Analysis of the seismic vulnerability of old buildings in the city of Porto [2019] José Rocha. Master’s thesis, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto;
• Cataloguing of typical materials and anomalies in old buildings of stone and wood masonry using BIM [2019] Carolina Rangel. Master’s thesis, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto;
• Seismic assessment of old stone masonry buildings typical of Porto in the original and post-retrofit state [2019] Beatrice Marchesi. Master’s thesis, Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori di Pavia;
• Development of a database of geometric parameters of the buildings of Porto from NCREP structural rehabilitation projects [2018] Carolina Rangel, Summer Internship Report, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto;
• BIM in the structural rehabilitation of old buildings [2018] Ailton Pereira. Internship Report, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto;
• Inspection, diagnosis and structural rehabilitation. Case studies [2017] Tiago Campelo. Internship Report, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto;
• Analysis of the seismic vulnerability of a building of high importance: CDOS (Comando Distrital de Operações de Socorro [District Command of Rescue Operations]) [2016] Ricardo Gonçalves. Master’s thesis, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto;
• Inspection, diagnosis and project design as part of structural rehabilitation [2016] Jorge Soares. Internship Report, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto;
• Study of anchoring in masonry elements: pullout behaviour (2016) Joana Oliveira. Internship Report, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (collaboration with HILTI Portugal);
• Inspection, diagnosis and project design as part of the rehabilitation of old buildings in Porto [2014] Filipe Coelho. Internship Report, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto.