The focus of the project is on virtual labs in VR teaching and learning settings. In these, the real laboratory environment is replaced by a computer-simulated form. Students are given the opportunity of realistic construction of arbitrary shear walls made of masonry. In the spirit of trial-and-error, this allows students to conduct their own shear tests and thus experience the effects of design changes in a playful way. In the project, the VR shear bearing walls are linked to efficient calculation algorithms in which the results are reflected back into the 3D VR scenarios, so that critical loads or design errors become directly apparent to the students. Thus, the nonlinear load-bearing effect of the structures can be directly experienced by the students.

Teaching Staff

Prof. Nacken (Virtual Reality), Prof. Marinković (Masonry), Prof. Klinkel (Computational structural mechanics).

Expected results

• Corroborate the understanding of the carrying mechanism of masonry shear walls based on experimental experiences.
• Motivate students in the analysis of nonlinear behavior of structural components such as masonry walls.
• Develop a drive to try out different scenarios and observe its consequences regarding the structural behavior of buildings which are subjected to transversal loads.
• Develop an intuition for the influence of system parameters on the structural behavior.
• Train the ability to predict the failure mechanisms of a masonry wall.
• Improve the sustainability of VR teaching by gaining experience in the development of VR concepts in the field of structural mechanics.
• Capitalize on previous long term research collaboration by transferring the knowledge to the teaching field.
• Enhance the VR teaching concepts via regular feedback loops from students.
• Lay out the building ground for further projects in the field of VR teaching on an international level.