Imane Bekrine received the Best Student Presentation Award at the 12th ACI/RILEM International Conference held in Toulouse from 23 to 26 June 2024
Among the 60 presentations by PhD students over the three days of the conference, Imane stood out for her presentation entitled “Multiscale Mechanical Investigation of Ternary Binders Incorporating Calcined Clay and Slag”.
Imane Bekrine, who defended her PhD thesis in March 2024, was supervised by Ahmed Loukili and co-supervised by Benoît Hilloulin in the Research Institute in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (GeM) at Centrale Nantes. Her thesis work focused on the mechanical properties of low-carbon binders using multi-scale experimental approaches. An original method combining nanoindentation and imaging techniques has been developed, enabling the precise identification of phases at the microstructural scale of cementitious materials incorporating a high proportion of mineral additions such as blast-furnace slag and calcined clays. The viscoelastic behaviour of these materials can thus be characterised more rapidly and accurately on a fine scale.