Dr. Daniela Ridder Weßels, M.Sc., has successfully completed her doctorate; the oral defense (defense) of her dissertation on the topic “Investigation of Substructures for Curtain-Wall Ventilated Facades Made of Hot-Dip Galvanized Steel” took place on September 23 at the University of Siegen.
Her doctoral advisor and primary supervisor was Univ. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thorsten Weimar from the University of Siegen (Department of Architecture, Faculty II, on the right in the photo), the second advisor and reviewer was Prof. Dr.-Ing. Helmut Hachul from Fachhochschule Dortmund (Faculty of Architecture, second from left). The chair of the committee, and also a member of the University of Siegen, was Univ. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Mathias Wirtz (on the left in the photo).
Ms. Ridder-Weßels (second from the right) developed the topic of her doctorate based on her master’s thesis in the Faculty of Architecture in the study program “Metal Building Envelopes.” Based on these investigations into steel substructures, she successfully secured and carried out a third-party funded project. At the same time, Ms. Ridder-Weßels pursued her doctorate, which was completed in collaboration with the University of Siegen. Thanks in part to funding from the Graduate Center at Fachhochschule Dortmund, she was able to successfully complete her dissertation!
The results of this work show that galvanizing thin-walled steel substructures can be achieved very easily and cost-effectively. The galvanization is durable and has been proven to cause no warping in wall brackets and load-bearing profiles. Furthermore, her analysis showed that a steel substructure can result in fewer wall brackets and thus reduce heat loss through the building wall by up to 20%. This has a significant impact on energy and resource consumption.
