Plenary Lecture 3

Room: Audimax
Time: Tuesday, 29. September 2026, 9:00 - 9:40
Chair: Jianbing Chen

Rüdiger Höffer

Prof. Dr.-Ing.
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering Sciences
Ruhr University Bochum, Germany

Buildability and reliability of slender tower structures under stochastic wind excitation

Innovations in construction technology are leading to increased demands on structural design and impact modeling. Bridge superstructures and piers under construction, as well as wind turbine towers and large industrial structures in surrounding built environment, require realistic impact models in order to prove that they can be constructed safely and to achieve the desired level of reliability in view of their service life.

Wind impact occupies a special position here due to its complexity and because its occurrence during construction and operation cannot be avoided. In addition, there are non-synoptic wind phenomena that have not been considered to date, such as thunderstorm gusts, downbursts, and tornadoes, which are occurring with increasing frequency—standardized wind models are weak in this area.

The presentation shows practical examples and strategies, reports on field tests and damage cases, and comments on selected aspects of the Eurocode revision.

Short Bio

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rüdiger Höffer studied civil engineering and obtained his doctorate in 1996 at the Ruhr University Bochum with a dissertation about bridge aeroelasticity, 1995-1997 he was a visiting scientist at the Danish Maritime Institute in Copenhagen and at the University of Florence. Since 1997 Prof. Höffer has been working as a structural engineer, became partner in engineering companies, and was later certified by the state as a design review engineer for structural integrity and fire protection. In 2003 he was appointed full professor for Wind Engineering and is in charge of the boundary layer wind tunnel at the Ruhr University Bochum. His research focuses on wind effects and dynamic actions on structures. He has published around 140 papers in journals, books, and conference proceedings. His scientific work is supported by national and European research funding programmes. He is vice-chairman of the European standards committee CEN/TC 250/SC 1 “Eurocode 1: Actions on structures”.