The future European research project, namely MSCA-Doctoral Network NanoF3Ind, on nanofluids comes in synergy to Cost Actions NanoUptake (2016-20), and Cost Innovator Grant Nanoconvex (2020-21). This previous efforts and works did not achieve the original goals of nanofluid development and applications in real industrial situations. Then, in line with these Actions, the ambition of this project is to train the new generation of researchers in this field for reaching a controlled use of nanofluids in real operating conditions from a global approach. This project will be performed from joint training and research activities involving, at starting point, scientific, technical and economic stakeholders in a common strategy. This project responds to current and future challenges about transition to a climate-neutral society by 2050, and sustainable economic developments for smart strategies to improve heat transfer and thermal storage. With this goal, the planned training programme, enabling innovative and responsible research, will be based on a complementary, pluridisciplinary and intersectoral network involving academic partners, European scientific consortia, industries (start-ups, SMEs, large groups, etc.), non-profit organizations, certification and standardisation agencies. This will make it possible to give a broad spectrum of skills and knowledge to future doctors, which can be completely transposed to other fields, thus guaranteeing them a strong employability at the end of the project, with entrepreneurial capacities, innovation, communication in a multidisciplinary international context. In a socially responsible research approach, they will be able to balance the challenges and tensions between science and industrial development, economic growth, public benefit and sustainable environment. The project will also strengthen Europe’s position and competitiveness in the field of nanofluids. Through the training excellence program developed by this project, it will be moving forward the current scientific knowledge to ensure the technological and normative development associated with the exploitation of nanofluids in energy systems, focusing on cooling and the use of solar energy.

In France, the simultaneous introduction of new energy efficiency standards and the increased seismic requirements has pushed the concrete industry to develop innovative solutions for internally insulated buildings particularly at slab-to-wall connections. To effectively deal with thermal bridges, LEGENDRE CONSTRUCTION has developed a robust and ductile system, called SLABE, able to transfer the forces from the slab to the structural walls. It comprises reinforcing bars and one or two stainless steel Z-profiles crossing the thermal insulation used as shear keys, offering large resistance and ductility to the system under both vertical and horizontal actions. Thanks to a close collaboration between LEGENDRE Construction and INSA de Rennes, this product is now accredited for use in seismic areas, giving the company a valuable competitive advantage. This first successful experience paved the way to new innovative structural products, based on the same principle of combining steel sections and concrete, that LEGENDRE Construction and INSA Rennes intend to further explore for the benefit of the construction industry. The field of research and innovation of B-HYBRID will focus on developing new hybrid solution in which steel sections are embedded in concrete members with the aim to optimize the building structure. Hybrid structures have been investigated at INSA Rennes during the past three years in the context of the European RFCS Project SMARTCOCO. The outcome of this project, which will end by September 2015, is a design guide with a set of rules for the design of specific hybrid elements. This design guide will provide the background information for the evolution of the Eurocodes. However, the SMARTCOCO project has investigated typical hybrid structural elements that pertain to tall buildings or heavily loaded structures. Accordingly, the outcomes of the project are not directly applicable to typical standard buildings as solutions considered in the SMARTCOCO project have a large local density of rebars around the steel profiles which cannot be accommodated in flat slabs and walls of usual buildings for both economical and technological reasons. The first research direction of B-HYBRID will be the extension of the results of SMARTCOCO to shear keys in usual buildings. The innovation supported by this research will be the adaptation of the SLABE for a wider use. This innovation is incremental and will lead to products certified and ready for market within 3 years. The second research direction will be the search for new hybrid solutions. The fruitful collaboration initiated in 2011 between the structural team of GEOSAX of INSA Rennes, with a long research tradition in steel and composite structures, and LEGENDRE Construction, a concrete builder, is the coming together of two different technological worlds. This recent close collaboration and the interest of the company to the other research projects of GEOSAX on hybrid systems has stimulated the company creativity and new ideas for development have been put on the table, which are planned to be investigated within this project. However the physical mechanisms underlying these possible new systems are not fully understood. The characterization of the products will call for the development of new theoretical models. This research direction should lead to innovative products at long term, but also at mid-term. Indeed two concepts have already been outlined by Legendre Construction and may lead to a finalized product within 5 years.

The need to repair concrete structures is nowadays critical as most infrastructures and buildings are counting several decades of service life. One of the main degradations observed on these structures is the corrosion of the steel reinforcement and the bursting of their concrete coating affecting the structures functionality leading sometimes to partial ruin. The repair of these damages to recover the initial material performances and to extend the structure service life has a significant cost for the contracting authority. The project aims to design Self-Healing Repair Eco-Mortars (SHREM) to replace defective or contaminated concretes and to protect steel reinforcement. The originality consists in valorizing local products (clays, natural fibers), industrial by-products (mineral additions) and waste (recycled aggregates) for the design of SHREM, optimizing their performances and durability and introducing repair durability indicators. The approach will allow reducing the environmental impact of the repaired structures, but also the repair cost by improving the material lifespan. Indeed, self-healing is used in a preventive manner, to increase the service life and to reduce the maintenance costs of the repaired structure. To reach these objectives, the adopted scientific methodology opts for an important experimentation campaign coupled with numerical modelling. It comprises several stages: design of SHREM characterized by a high healing capacity combining autonomous and autogenous healing mechanisms, optimization of their repair capacity thanks to novel repair durability indicators and assessment of their durability under severe environmental conditions.

As is true for the society as a whole, the construction industry will soon have to change its practices in order to take into account the environmental impacts in the design process. In the specific field of residential, tertiary and office buildings, this evolution is not prepared enough by industrials although the standard-setting work has been initiated quite a long time ago, and that application guides have been made by CSTB for the application of the life cycle analysis (LCA). This delay can be bounded to the lack of capacity of innovation of the sector, that has been among others pointed out by the report of the mission of information of the National Assembly over the thermal renovation of buildings published in february. The dynamism of the academic research in civil engineering can offer some answers, and some ways to accelerate the change. The LGCGM lab, supported by some industrial partners, has obtained some interesting results that call for further development towards industrialization : over bio-sourced insulated materials, the use of raw-earth, green cements, wood-concrete construction,thermal break systems, …. Some initiatives ensure a part of the technological transfer : - By opening the experimental installations to industrials through PFT GCM; - Towards lower and higher education through CMQ BdB - By partenarial research, CIFRE theses and the LabCom B-HYBRID. In this last case, the benefits of the research is limited by the lack of knowledge and know-how of small and medium companies over the certification process. In order to contribute to the local dynamism around LGCGM, The FREEINBTP has the following objectives : - Make some scientific works in order to develop some industrial systems able to lower the environmental impact of buildings; - Create a doctoral course about the certification processes, and the way to use the scientific proofs to obtain technical agreements; - To bring support to industrials by opening the initial partnership to new companies. This objectives can be considered as realistic, because the FREEINBTP project is founded on a partnership between INSA Rennes, INGENOVA, and COHB, that has already brought to certification or industrialization several projects : - Between 2011 and 2014, a CIFRE doctoral thesis has characterized the cyclic behaviour of the thermal break system for internal insulation SLABE. This work has been determining to obtain the French technical agreement ATEC with use in seismic areas. The slab is until now the only system that has obtained this agreement; - Between 2015 and 2020, LGCGM and INGENOVA have worked together through the LabCom ANR B-HYBRID about several steel-concrete systems to use in concrete buildings. Three patents have been issued; a new system of U-shaped steel concrete hybrid beam has been characterised and tested on site, and a thermal break system for external insulation, that will be used for the first time on site in 2021 with an ATEXagreement, has been developed.

In France, the simultaneous introduction of new energy efficiency standards and the increased seismic requirements has pushed the concrete industry to develop innovative solutions for internally insulated buildings particularly at slab-to-wall connections. To effectively deal with thermal bridges, LEGENDRE CONSTRUCTION has developed a robust and ductile system, called SLABE, able to transfer the forces from the slab to the structural walls. It comprises reinforcing bars and one or two stainless steel Z-profiles crossing the thermal insulation used as shear keys, offering large resistance and ductility to the system under both vertical and horizontal actions. Thanks to a close collaboration between LEGENDRE Construction and INSA de Rennes, this product is now accredited for use in seismic areas, giving the company a valuable competitive advantage. This first successful experience paved the way to new innovative structural products, based on the same principle of combining steel sections and concrete, that LEGENDRE Construction and INSA Rennes intend to further explore for the benefit of the construction industry. The field of research and innovation of B-HYBRID will focus on developing new hybrid solution in which steel sections are embedded in concrete members with the aim to optimize the building structure. Hybrid structures have been investigated at INSA Rennes in the context of the European RFCS Project SMARTCOCO. The outcome of this project, which has ended by September 2015, is a design guide with a set of rules for the design of specific hybrid elements. This design guide will provide the background information for the evolution of the Eurocodes. However, the SMARTCOCO project has investigated typical hybrid structural elements that pertain to tall buildings or heavily loaded structures. Accordingly, the outcomes of the project are not directly applicable to typical standard buildings as solutions considered in the SMARTCOCO project have a large local density of rebars around the steel profiles which cannot be accommodated in flat slabs and walls of usual buildings for both economical and technological reasons. The first research direction of B-HYBRID is the extension of the results of SMARTCOCO to shear keys in usual buildings. The innovation supported by this research is the adaptation of the SLABE for a wider use. The second research direction is the search for new hybrid solutions. The fruitful collaboration initiated in 2011 between the structural team of GEOSAX of INSA Rennes, with a long research tradition in steel and composite structures, and LEGENDRE Construction, a concrete builder, is the coming together of two different technological worlds. This recent close collaboration and the interest of the company to the other research projects of GEOSAX on hybrid systems has stimulated the company creativity and new ideas for development have been put on the table, which are planned to be investigated within this project. The initial phase of the LabCom has allowed to develop a system of U-shaped concrete-steel hybrid beam, and to test it on site. The “consolidation” phasis will allow to go further in the investigation of this system, and to develop new systems, whom principles have been studied in the first phasis.